


Gateway to the Stars

by MathiasHyde



Series: Star Drifter series [1]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:20:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 44,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1520774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MathiasHyde/pseuds/MathiasHyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crippled by a terrorist attack on Earth, Yagyuu stops over at the space ports en route to his home in the colonies. There he meets Niou, a genius mechanic who offers him more than a pair of artificial legs so he can walk again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drifter

There were always frequent attacks on the protected Earth cities, by groups living outside the borders looking for food, trying to cause enough chaos in the small fragmented hope that they could sneak in and start living undetected inside the walls away from the aridity of the wasteland, or in some mid-guided attempt to see through their own definition of justice on the privileged part of humanity that lived inside.

The attacks were never successful. The protective barriers in place over the multitudes of cities had been in place for decades, controlled and maintained by the greatest minds born in each generation. And as each attack failed, the population's confidence in their technology grew and changed into dangerous overconfidence throughout all of the protected Earth cities. And so when the first successful attack hit, the series of cities were paralysed by disbelief and they crumbled.

It was disbelief that not only did the one wave of attacks bring down the barriers of one of the largest cities on Earth in their entirety, they shook the foundations of the city, reminiscent of the earthquakes from centuries past. The generations of families that lived inside the central rings of the city, furthest from the walls were hit the hardest, the shockwaves spreading out in weakening waves towards the fracturing boundaries. The wealthiest, the ones that had thought themselves the safest and furthest from danger should the walls ever be breached died quickly as their houses of steel and stone came crashing down.

Yagyuu's memories of the attack wasn't of disbelief, but of the surprise when the first tremors had started, followed by the pain as the roof collapsed on him as he was halfway out the door to find his father. The disbelief had come later, when he had woken up in the much damaged hospital of the city, his father having already left to the space colonies and finding out his shattered legs had been removed.

The shock, pain and disbelief faded slowly to be replaced by the bitter thoughts that he hadn't meant to be on Earth in the first place.

\--

The first thing Yagyuu noticed upon entering the terminal was that the air was different here, in the space ports. Different from the filtered air back on Earth that still mildly tasted of the pollution outside of the protected cities, no matter how far technology advanced. The air here tasted almost manufactured in a sense; a subtle reminder that no matter the grass and trees that he saw around him, nor the blue sky above, the space ports and colonies were entirely human constructs.

The government and his parents had spared no expense when it came to his recovery, from the replacement legs that were currently being grown in his father's laboratory in the space colonies, to the sleek black and silver wheelchair that he sat in now. It was fitted with a small module under his hand that let the chair move with the slightest touch that he made good use of as he smoothly manoeuvred his way through the crowd towards the baggage collection area.

He waited in line, looking around him. While there were many people at the baggage area like him, stopping over briefly from Earth or the colonies, there were also military personnel and a myriad of people Yagyuu couldn't place immediately from their appearances alone and he could only assume lived at the space port itself. There were workers, easily recognisable by their clothing and the occasional marking down their forearm, but the eccentric clothing he spotted otherwise didn't seem to fit in with either Earth or colony fashion.

All too quickly he was at the front of the line and he had to draw his attention to the man at the baggage claim.

"Identification number X19A-308-1054, Hiroshi Yagyuu," he said, watching the screen flash in confirmation and his bag appear. The man moved to pass it to him before hesitating and putting it on his lap instead. Yagyuu awkwardly thanked him before turning around and wheeling away.

In a society of advanced medicine and gene modification, injuries and especially disabling ones such as his were rarities, Yagyuu knew. The result was that most people weren't sure how to act and where general courtesy was the norm, Yagyuu found people being more polite to him than usual. He thanked them still, as he was offered the first ride from the terminal to his hotel instead of being made to wait in line again, as well as when they helped him with his bag. He declined the offer of help to the hotel however, making his own way there and up to his room.

His communicator rang as he entered and Yagyuu wheeled over to it, keying in his code and his mother's face appeared on the screen. Of course she'd know the moment he got into the hotel.

"Oh Hiroshi, you're looking pale," was her rather pleasant way of greeting him. "Was the trip alright? Did you manage to rest?"

Yagyuu assured her that he was fine and they fell into their usual routine of his mother talking and Yagyuu listening patiently. His father had been busy at the lab and she hadn't seen him since. Working on his replacement legs, no doubt.

The waiting time for them to be fully mature was part of the reason Yagyuu was allowed time at the space port by himself. While his mother had - and still was, if her current tirade about how she'd much prefer if he was already on his way to the colonies now was anything to go by - insisted that he come home as soon as he had been discharged from the hospital, he had arranged otherwise.

"What are you planning on doing while you're in the port? I heard there's meant to be good shopping there although I've never been," she said and Yagyuu nodded. "I heard rumours from one of the ladies that one of the ports has some exotic silks from the old East Asia Republic. Could you imagine that? You'll have to see if you can find me some of them, darling."

He didn't quite have the heart to tell her that all his current plans involved was finding a passable cup of tea and perhaps a bookshop. The ports were central trading hubs, he had hopes he could find some of the rarer texts.

Yagyuu ended their communication with half-hearted promises that he would look for a suitable gift for her and father, before turning the communicator off.

\--

It was mid-morning by the time Yagyuu made it out of the hotel to wander the streets of the port. The lady on the morning shift at the hotel reception had given him directions to a close by coffee shop that she said was part of her before-work routine. It was a warm, pleasant place with a promising smell of fresh coffee beans. Yagyuu ordered a pot of tea for one and made his way over to a table.

He was partway through his first cup and enjoying the general muffled chatter around him when he heard a curious musical humming next to him. Yagyuu glanced over and stared at the white hair of the person crouching down next to him, apparently inspecting his wheelchair.

"Can I help you?" he asked, twitching his finger and making his chair move just a tiny fraction backwards.

The person looked up at him and Yagyuu blinked in surprise as he saw a youthful face at odds with the colour of their hair.

"Is this a Sterren V-01 Dwaler?" 

Yagyuu initially had no idea what they were talking about but he gathered from the way they ran an appreciative hand over the curve of the wheel of his wheelchair, he could only assume they were asking about that. "I'm not entirely sure, sorry." That all sorted, they stood up and Yagyuu thought they might leave him in peace now. He certainly didn't expect them to pull out the chair next to them and sit down, still bending over to look at the wheelchair.

"You've got a Licht mobility attachment too, that's impressive."

And without asking they reached out and touched the small square touchpad under his hand. Yagyuu's grip tightened on his teacup, but the chair didn't move. They made an approving noise and sat up, leaning back in the chair. "That's been keyed into your fingerprints - don't see that too often."

There was a long moment of silence between them in which Yagyuu drank tea and tried to pointedly ignore the other person at his table. From the glances he took, he gathered they were sending a quick message on their handheld communicator before they put it down on the table and leaned forward.

"So, hey. Are you free right now?"

Yagyuu raised his eyebrows. "I don't see why that is any of your business."

Their mouth curled into a smile. "I'm on my way to work and I want a closer look at your wheelchair. I don't get a chance to see high end tech like that often." There was another pause and they looked down at the half-empty cup of tea and then back up to Yagyuu's face. "I'll make you a better cup than whatever you got here."

Yagyuu sat back a little, staring at the man as if he was actually going to consider the ridiculous request. He noticed they had some cold chocolate monstrosity in a take-away mug next to them and his lips thinned slightly as he looked away from it to their face. Their eyes were very blue, he noted, and trained on his face with an unnerving intensity.

He opened his mouth to give a very firm rejection and to tell the man to leave him alone, but something made him pause. Perhaps it was some irrational recklessness born from days of inactivity in the hospital or the frustration at his situation and the knowledge that he was going to be coddled by his family when he reached the colonies, leaving his time at the port as a small window of freedom. Or perhaps it was the strange sense of security and, as crazy as it sounded, familiarity, the longer he remained in the other's presence.

"I've got a meeting in the afternoon, but I'm able to spare a short while now.” Yagyuu broke eye contact and pushed his cup away. 

Well, at least he seemed to possess some degree of caution to his thought process to somewhat balance out the sudden unexpected recklessness.

The white-haired man grinned and stood up, picking up his drink. Yagyuu gestured for him to lead the way, calling out a thanks to the worker at the counter as he followed him out the door.

–

“I'm Masaharu, by the way. Masaharu Niou,” was the careless introduction he got partway through their walk.

“Charmed.” Yagyuu twisted around to glance at Niou, who was walking behind him his eyes watching the movement of the wheels with far too much interest to be normal. “Hiroshi Yagyuu.”

He saw the flicker of recognition at the name and already prepared himself for the usual question. “Yagyuu? The genetic manipulation expert?” And following that was the quick glance over his face as if looking for any sign of his father having done any work on him.

“Whatever you are thinking, you are most likely incorrect,” Yagyuu said curtly, settling back into his chair and continuing forward.

Niou laughed and hurried up along beside him and Yagyuu stiffened as he felt a hand casually touch his shoulder. “I don't know. If I could make people look however I wanted, I think your brown eyes are pretty nice and the glasses aren't bad either...”

Yagyuu just looked at Niou for a long moment before he pushed the hand off his shoulder. “Thank you for your assessment.” He would have continued down the street if Niou hadn't grabbed the back of his chair and rather forcibly steered him sideways and down an alleyway.

“This way, Hiroshi.” Niou laughed and Yagyuu was rather tempted to activate the brakes just to spite the man.

But he didn't and he found himself being pushed down a small side street and turned to face a small building entrance partway down. It had a very Old East Asia Republic-inspired appearance that was overshadowed by the taller buildings around it. Yagyuu caught a quick glance of the sign – Sanada Dojo – before Niou unlocked the door and pushed him inside.

There was the jingle of bells as the door opened and Yagyuu sat in partial darkness, listening to Niou walk around the room turning lights on, slowly revealing some of the interior. There also seemed to be very quiet strains of music coming from somewhere further in.

“Oi, Sanada! If you're going to come down first, at least open the door and turn on the lights!” There was no reply but that didn't deter Niou. Yagyuu thought he heard some movement from down the dark hallway and the music suddenly stopped. “I know you're up, you know! I can hear your dumb old-man music and smell you smoking from here!”

The last of the lights seemed to have been turned on and Yagyuu looked around the entrance area. It was a mess of stacked boxes and old pieces of artwork. Niou stomped over to him and pushed him down the hallway, past a set of stairs. The interior matched with the oddly antiquated exterior – all wooden floors and paper screens. Considering the general price of wood, it must have cost a rather large amount. But the atmosphere was oddly comforting and Yagyuu smiled slightly as he heard the music turn back on deeper in the building.

“Sanada's the owner of the place,” Niou said, in way of an explanation. He slid open a door and Yagyuu was greeted with the most bizarre sight. One half of the room seemed to be a work shop of sorts and meticulously tidy. The other half, that was separated by a roughly straight line down the middle of the room, was what Yagyuu could only describe as a disaster zone. Teetering piles of boxes and paper, what could possibly pass as a desk over in the far corner and Yagyuu could see what he suspected was a pair of brightly coloured undergarments draped over a light fixture on the wall.

“A kid also works here, but he's probably still asleep upstairs.” Niou moved through the room and seemed to be clearing a path towards the desk, shifting things to either side of the pathway with his foot. “I think he was up pretty late last night working on his usual rubbish.”

“And you do what exactly for work?”

Niou shrugged. “Not too much. Build and repair mechanical things.” He grinned and looked at Yagyuu. “Sometimes things like personal space craft and military craft.”

“And sometimes people's bed side night lights,” Yagyuu said, gesturing over to the work bench where one particular example was sitting, half pulled apart. He wheeled carefully through the makeshift pathway and stopped next to the desk, turning around to face Niou.

“And sometimes stuff like night lights,” Niou agreed and grimaced.

Without warning, Niou suddenly shoved a pile of paper off his desk onto the floor to presumably clear up some desk space. Yagyuu jumped slightly and watched as loose pieces of paper floated down to the ground. From somewhere Niou procured a plain cup, followed by a saucer with a rather vulgar bright striped pattern.

“Now, did you want old fashioned leaves or instant?”

“I shall leave it to your judgement for whatever makes the better cup of tea.”

Niou paused and gave him a long, considering look before shrugging and pushing past him. “Okay. I have to go grab some from Sanada then, hang on. I think he got a shipment the other day.”

Yagyuu bit his tongue to stop himself from making some rude reply and instead pulled his pocket tissue out to clean the rim of the cup as Niou left the room. Just in case. 

It took a surprisingly short amount of time before Niou came back and it took Yagyuu a moment to realise there were two lots of footsteps approaching. He turned around to see Niou with a pot of something and a tall man behind him.

Despite the man clearly not being 'old' in appearance, Yagyuu could only assume this was Sanada. The man had strong features that came together in a rather blunt face that was nevertheless quite handsome. Coupled with his large frame, he came across almost intimidating. There was quite a heavy tension in the air as Sanada frowned at him and Yagyuu stared evenly back at him.

“Hiroshi, this is Genichirou Sanada. Sanada this is Hiroshi Yagyuu my new friend, so you have to be nice to him or I won't cook dinner this week.” Niou seemed oblivious to the tension as he put down the pot and absently stroked Yagyuu's hair. Yagyuu's eyebrow twitched.

“I see.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you,” Yagyuu said. Sanada's eyes narrowed slightly in response and he grunted. Yagyuu just continued to smile and look him in the eye.

“Wow, this staring thing seems pretty exciting. I want to be part of it,” Niou's face was suddenly very close to his and Yagyuu flinched backwards, wheeling back and feeling his chair bump into the edge of the desk.

“You lack any concept of personal space...” Yagyuu muttered more to himself and thankfully – or perhaps not – Niou didn't seem to hear.

Sanada looked at Niou and then to Yagyuu again. “Make sure you get today's orders done, Niou. Seiichi's got some new ideas he wants to talk to you about tonight."

“Yes sir.” Niou mockingly saluted Sanada as he turned and left the room and Yagyuu could hear the man's heavy footsteps as he continued down the hallway.

There was an awkward silence between them as Niou moved to sit in the chair behind his desk. He started whistling between his teeth and Yagyuu watched silently as he poured the tea. A dash of milk and then Niou pulled out a tin of biscuits with a flourish, balancing a few on the edge of the saucer.

“So anyway.” Niou grabbed a piece of paper and pen, putting it between them. “I was thinking about how to modify your chair. I like Sterren's but they're a bit shit with manoeuvrability compared to like, the latest models out of Mendel which have been pretty sexy--” 

Yagyuu stared at Niou as he quickly drew out what he assumed was the relevant mechanical parts of the wheelchair and continued talking. He seemed to be more thinking out loud than actually expecting a conversation. Instead Yagyuu focused on trying his tea which actually turned out to be rather nice. Surprisingly.

“-- and I know mobility attachments are considered really top of the line and amazing right now, but I've been working on this thing--”

Niou's drawings had switched away from mechanical parts to flowers and swirls for some reason and Yagyuu was broken out of his watching the almost hypnotising movement of the pen by Niou tapping the end on the paper as he thought.

“-- maybe we should attach them to your glasses or something instead of implanting them in your skull--”

That was quite alarming and Yagyuu just stopped himself from choking on his mouthful of tea. “I beg your pardon?”

“I mean, it's all theoretical right now, don't worry,” Niou said, “but I probably have some free time coming up I could use on it. They wouldn't take that long, I don't think...”

Yagyuu put his cup down rather more forcefully than intended and he lifted a hand to stop Niou from talking for a moment. “As someone who is still very much still a stranger, you are not modifying anything of mine or... implanting anything in me at all.”

Niou paused and looked at him closely before his mouth curled into a smile and he leaned forward. “Oh really? So how close do I have to be to be able to implant something in you?” His smile turned into very much a leer and Yagyuu forcibly returned the conversation to its original track.

“My wheelchair doesn't need to be modified. It's only an interim measure.”

“Yeah? Got some fancy artificial legs being built or something?”

“They're being grown at the moment by my father. It's only looking to take a few months.”

Something shifted imperceptibly in Niou's expression and he sat back slowly. Yagyuu's eyes narrowed and he pushed up his glasses. “They're being regrown from my own legs.”

He thought he understood. While genetic modification was becoming more common and his father was hailed as a genius for each leap in advancement that he made, the most widely accepted form was building from existing materials – growing replacement limbs from the remains of the lost ones, creating new organs by cloning to cut down the transplant waiting lists exponentially, modifying the genes of foetuses in the womb to certain specifications – building anything from very little natural genetic material not a path lightly taken.

Certainly, his father had gone down that path briefly in his youth and was still feeling the remnants of the public condemnation of his work so many years later even though nothing had come out of it.

Niou's expression cleared and he seemed to relax just a little. Enough to reach out and grab a biscuit from the precariously balanced pile on the side of Yagyuu's plate, anyway.

“So what're you planning for the next few months, then? Go sight seeing? Go to Earth?”

“I just came from Earth. I have no intention of going back there.”

He could see the moment that Niou put two and two together. The verbal “oh!” when he figured it out was also a good clue.

When he wanted to, Yagyuu was capable of being quite charming and skilfully able to move over awkward lulls in conversation like the one they were having now. However he was also not as bothered as some people were about uncomfortable silences and so he calmly turned back to his tea, watching out of the corner of his eye and Niou visibly squirmed at the silence.

It was actually quite amusing the watch the other man bite his lip and chew on the edge of the biscuit, his eyebrows drawing together in a very obvious frown as he tried to figure out what to say.

Yagyuu finally took pity on him and lowered his tea cup. “It happened, Masaharu. It's not your concern.” His voice came out a little more curt than planned and he saw Niou flinch slightly.

Niou stared at him for a few long moments before he visibly steeled himself, taking a few deep breaths and exhaled noisily.

"Anyway," Niou said with great deliberateness, slapping his palm down on the desktop. "Do you know anything about mechanics?"

"I know a little," Yagyuu admitted.

"Want to help me get through today's orders?" Niou had some ridiculous hopeful smile on his face. "I'll make you another cup of tea if you agree."

Yagyuu gave Niou a thoughtful look and enjoyed watching him huff in impatience as he took another measured sip of tea - that was partly him just holding the cup up to his lips for a long moment - before he put the empty cup down and pushed it towards Niou.

"Very well. But tea first."

\--

Yagyuu lost track of time that day and about the lie he had told about having a meeting that afternoon. Niou hadn't mentioned it either so hopefully he had forgotten the slip up.

He spent an oddly unexpected enjoyable day sitting across the workbench from Niou, watching the other man pull apart a light, what seemed like a small engine and someone's high end handheld communicator and put them back together with what Niou claimed was his special "20 adjustments" and then laughed as though it was some joke that only he understood and wasn't willing to explain even when Yagyuu specifically asked what was so funny.

There was just something about watching the dexterity of his hands and listening to his enthusiastic commentary about what he was doing that Yagyuu found all too amusing and rather refreshing. It was also all too easy to get him to keep on talking by asking occasional questions and pretending he didn't understand what was going on.

He also discovered, after a few of these that Niou tended to get frustrated if asked to explain something too many times over. His hair also bristled up when he was frustrated and Yagyuu laughed as Niou launched into another roundabout explanation about the heat distribution in the hand communicator for the fifth time. He stifled it quickly but Niou glanced at him, his blue eyes flashing indignantly.

"Are you just pretending to not get it?"

Yagyuu straightened his expression into a neutral, bland smile and pushed up his glasses. "I understand you're getting annoyed Masaharu, however I do not appreciate being accused of such an immature thing."

Niou's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to reply but was distracted by the sound of the front door bells jingling. He glanced at the clock and suddenly stood up.

"Oh shit, when did it get that late? Hang on, Hiroshi. Wait there."

He could hear voices in the hallway and Niou moved over the door, poking his head out. "Seiichi, Sanada was rude to my new friend, so I'm punishing him by making him wait for dinner! Blame him if you're hungry!"

He turned around to see what was happening and Niou gave him a wonky smile. “Did you want to stay? I'm the best cook here.”

Yagyuu wasn't sure how that gave him any point of reference to Niou's culinary skills, but he shook his head. He had seen the time and gotten quite a bit of a shock as well. “I can't, I'm sorry to say.” And he found his words to be actually somewhat genuine, surprising himself a little.

For a moment he thought Niou might object, but he shrugged and opened the door a little wider for Yagyuu to get out, touching his shoulder to get him to stop so he could close the door again.

There was noise further down the hallway and a new voice that Yagyuu hadn't heard before. But he let Niou push him down the hallway and into the front entrance. A door slid open to his right and a slender blue haired man stepped out, pausing as he saw the two of them. He seemed surprised at the sight of them but his face relaxed into a smile easily.

“Genichirou didn't mention you had company,” he said, looking at Yagyuu with a level, intense gaze. “Are you going to be long?”

“I'm just taking him to the main street. Keep your pants on.”

There seemed to be an unspoken conversation going on between their words and Yagyuu frowned a little. The man didn't reply to Niou and nodded cordially at Yagyuu. “Have a safe trip,” he said before he headed off down the hallway. Yagyuu twisted a little to watch him go. He had a smooth, almost inhuman walk, seeming to almost float along instead of walk.

“Artificial legs,” Niou said, looking after him as well. “He can fly for a little bit too if he wants.”

“Really?”

“Do you want some? I carved a penis on the back of the left knee joint and he still doesn't know. I'm joking of course.” He raised his voice for the last part, coupled with a significant glance in the direction the man had just gone in.

“... I'll pass, thank you.”

Niou pushed open the door and they headed out onto the street in silence. It was much darker than he had anticipated and Yagyuu looked up at the artificial smattering of stars in the purpling ceiling of the space port.

“Thank you for today,” he said as the end of the alleyway came closer.

“Are you free tomorrow, or have you got another meeting?” Niou grinned and Yagyuu sighed. It seemed he hadn't forgotten his excuse from earlier that day after all.

“I will see.”

Niou was still smiling when they reached the end of the street and he stuck his hands in his pockets, stepping back from Yagyuu. “See you tomorrow, Hiroshi.”

Yagyuu's lips thinned and he paused, looking at Niou sideways. “I said, I will see. Goodnight.”


	2. Seeker

There had been many changes in Sanada's life so far. Growing up on one of the moon settlements with his grandparents, training to pilot and maintain spacecraft, enlisting in the military and finally settling down in one of the busiest, ever changing ports. The ever changing nature of the port aside, there was always news of the frequent chaos and attacks from outside. Therefore the few things in Sanada's life that remained constant, he had learned to treasure very dearly.

The first was his shop, which had been his home for nearly ten years now, since he'd been discharged from the military. He had built it from the ground up and named it in honour of his ancestors who his grandfather said had run a kendo dojo of the same name in the East Asia Republic before the Nuclear War. While their location wasn't ideal with a plethora of bigger, fancier mechanic shops closer to the main districts, their sometimes very specialised services brought in enough business for them to remain comfortable.

The second constant in his life was his two housemates, Akaya and Niou. The first he had caught soon after opening his store, trying to filch food scraps out of his bin. Niou he had found one night shortly after pulling apart his heating system to find out how it worked. For some reason he couldn't explain, especially given later encounters he'd had since with similar youngsters, he had allowed for them to live in his house with him in exchange for working in the shop during the day.

He had other companions that he treasured:Yukimura, Yanagi, Jackal and Marui, but the four of them lived in other places and came and went as they wished. While it seemed more often than not that his house was playing host to at least one of them, there were still the quiet nights of just him, Akaya and Niou home alone. While it wasn't by any means a peaceful household, there was a strange sense of _right_ that he could only experience there.

His closest friends often said that he was too kind a man, no matter how much Sanada frowned at them and the long silences often stretched between him and others. But Sanada was aware that despite any kindness he may have in taking two strangers off the streets, he was an inherently selfish, unmoveable man now that he wasn't in the past. He had learned to adapt to the turbulent nature of society nowadays, but it had been with those few constants always remaining as such. And it was now, that he sat in the kitchen listening to Niou talk excitedly about a certain Hiroshi Yagyuu that there was a great feeling of unease within him.

\--

He knew the Yagyuu family. _Everyone_ knew of Dr. Yagyuu, the unofficial leader in genetic engineering who had pushed boundaries further than had been acceptable by the stretched moral compass of the public, trying to create perfect life from nothing. He hadn't known the man had a son, but just hearing the name and getting a single glance at the man had been enough for Sanada to figure out what had gotten him into the state he was in.

Yagyuu had been polite enough from the short interaction they'd had, the further conversation that he'd overheard with Niou. While they pretended otherwise most of the time, all of them were aware that the walls in the Sanada dojo were thin and Niou never made any effort to keep his voice down. Yagyuu had the crisp enunciation and carefully considered words of someone from the higher society that came together into a compelling voice. And with his classically attractive features, it wasn't difficult for one to wonder if his father had influenced his genes to some extent while in embryo.

"-- and so I was thinking that maybe I could adjust his wheelchair when he's over here next since I'm pretty sure he's going to come over tomorrow as well --" Niou said, his dinner mostly untouched and he gesticulated enthusiastically at Akaya and Yukimura. 

Akaya was vaguely nodding along, more interested in his food than what Niou was saying, Yukimura at least looked half interested. Though Sanada had a feeling that Yukimura was more interested in hearing the small facts about Yagyuu himself, than Niou's plans to connect a device to control the wheelchair onto the arms of Yagyuu's glasses.

"-- I'll have to talk to Data-man about how to amplify the signal since it's not actually going to be in his skull--"

"Niou, be quiet and eat," Sanada said, finally cutting across him. He ignored the quiet laugh from Yukimura and the all too knowing smile on his friend's face. "You've still got work to do after dinner, we're not wasting all night here."

He closed his eyes briefly as Niou kicked his leg under the table and glowered at him, but the one-sided conversation about All Things Hiroshi Yagyuu stopped abruptly after that. His leg throbbed but Sanada refused to give Niou any satisfaction, calmly eating another spoonful of dinner.

There was a brief silence filled only by the tapping and scraping of cutlery on plates, until Yukimura started up the conversation again. "Akaya, I heard that Renji got in touch with you about something today."

Akaya perked up immediately and lowered his spoon. "Oh yeah! He's looking at anti-gravity stuff again and wanted _my_ input on it." Akaya had an unmistakable note of pride in his voice and he sat up a little straighter. Sanada assumed that Yukimura had been the one who suggested to Yanagi that he ask Akaya in the first place.

"I think it's for mobile carriers, to try and save energy since the current flight models we're using right now are really outdated--" Akaya took up the conversation ball with much the same enthusiasm as Niou had before.

While he would never actually admit it out loud, Sanada was immensely proud of Akaya's progress from a dirty young boy scrounging for food from waste bins out the back of shops and houses, to the still admittedly rather rough around the edges, but talented mechanic. Sanada's cheek muscle twitched as he saw a bit of food go flying off the end of Akaya's fork as he waved it through the air.

When they had first become a "family", Sanada had insisted on them all waiting for each other to finish their meals before leaving the table. It hadn't worked out very well with Niou eating less than them and usually turning to tormenting Akaya when he was waiting for them to finish. Needless to say his insistence on group dinners had ended very quickly and Niou went off as soon as he cleared his plate, leaving Sanada to wait for Akaya to finish to make sure he cleared the table and did the washing up.

However it was an unspoken rule that they remained seated at the table when Yukimura was there. Niou was watching him with an unnerving intensity and the moment Yukimura took the last bite of food off his plate, he stood up, his chair legs scraping back against the floor. "Excellent, we're done."

Yukimura looked at up him in surprise and frowned a little. "I was actually hoping to get seconds, it was so delicious."

There was a flash of mixed emotions across Niou's face that Sanada knew was partly irritation because he was sick of waiting for people to finish eating with some confusion and pride because he was the one who had made the meal. And despite his claims to Yagyuu earlier that day, Niou did frequently ask people whether they liked his cooking.

"But..." Niou faltered and moved slightly as if to sit down again, pausing as Yukimura laughed and stood up as well.

"I'm just joking, Masaharu.”

Niou gave Yukimura a long look before he laughed and grinned at Akaya, glancing over at the stove. "Make sure to clean to stove twice tonight, I might have spilled a lot over it when it boiled over." He shrugged as though to say he couldn't help it and Sanada saw Akaya already rising to the bait.

"Niou, stop making Seiichi wait," Sanada said and gave Niou a shove to get him out the door before Akaya could reply. Before he left the kitchen as well though, Sanada did give Akaya a warning look to remind him that he still needed to do a good job cleaning the kitchen even with him not supervising as normal.

The three of them headed down the hallway, past the now closed sliding panel doors that hid Sanada's small garden to Sanada's workroom. It was a small room with sliding doors that opened to the adjacent side of the garden that he moved to close as they entered. That done, he sat down at his desk chair, turning to watch Niou and Yukimura at the work bench.

"Pants off and on the workbench as usual?" Yukimura asked with a laugh, already undoing the clasp on his trousers.

"Jacket and shirt off too. Just keep the underwear on or Sanada might have a heart attack." Niou grinned back at Yukimura and gave a sly, sideways glance at Sanada.

He watched as Yukimura pulled off his clothes and hoisted himself up onto the tidy workbench when he was done, his legs hanging over the edge. It was only then that he pulled off his gloves, dropped them to the side, revealing the full entirety of his artificial limbs. One leg started at the knee and the other at his hip. His left arm began at the shoulder and his right at the wrist, hidden by long sleeve shirts and gloves at all times.

Yukimura had never revealed the full details of the attack that had left him crippled for life and dependent upon an endless series of temporary, poor quality artificial limbs. He had refused to accept cloned limbs from other people and his original limbs had been destroyed: Yukimura had bluntly said they'd been burned to ash in front of him as they'd been removed, the one time Sanada had asked. He had never asked about it again, although he suspected Yukimura had told Yanagi the details, if only because the other man hated not knowing anything. It had been shortly before the attack that Dr. Yagyuu's original branch of research had been publicly condemned and subsequently banned, leaving Yukimura with few options.

The artificial mechanical limbs Niou had constructed, he claimed were permanent but Niou insisted on regular maintenance anyway. They were beautiful pieces of mechanical construction. Careful, perfectly measured lengths of a steel hybrid, dyed black at Yukimura's request.

It had been the ease with which Niou had created the limbs when he'd offhandedly suggested it to Yukimura, admitting that he'd never done it before but would be willing to try, that had made Sanada really start to wonder about him. The ease with which he picked up all the new skills that Sanada taught him made him wonder if he'd had previous intensive training in the field. There were large holes in Niou's memory prior to when he started wandering around the ports and what memories he did have were fragmented and few so he couldn't give any answers.

Sanada hadn't minded initially, as questionable as the origins of Niou's skills were. Two capable hands, once he was sure Niou knew all the necessary things, were better than one in the workshop. And by giving Niou the tedious work that kept him busy enough, Sanada had been able to take on bigger, more profitable jobs.

But those artificial limbs...

Sanada watched in silence as Niou hummed to himself, carefully checking all the connections, starting from the right hand and moving slowly across to the left.

“You've used the gun,” Niou said, pulling the forearm out and and flipping it down to reveal the barrel of a gun built into the artificial arm. “I don't want to know what on, don't tell me,” he said as Yukimura opened his mouth to undoubtedly do just that.

“It was very important, don't worry.” Yukimura smiled and Niou grimaced as he started to clean it efficiently, putting the arm back together quickly.

As always, Niou started asking Yukimura about the responsiveness of each of the limbs as he reached them, nodding as Yukimura responded and apparently adjusting as he went according to the feedback. He fussed over the shoulder joint for a while, lifting Yukimura's arm up and rotating it. Niou frowned and let it drop down, picking up his screwdriver again.

"Did you know that man was a Yagyuu when you brought him back here?" Yukimura asked. His voice was light, calm as it always was, but Sanada saw Niou tense at the question, his fingers tightening slightly on the screwdriver.

"Oddly enough, no, actually." Niou glanced up at Yukimura. "I thought his Sterren was cool, so I wanted to look at it closer."

"And when you found out?"

"I didn't think it mattered," Niou shrugged and continued to work, but he looked noticeably tenser. "He's entertaining and he has a really high tech wheelchair."

Yukimura gave Niou a long appraising look and leaned a little closer, but Sanada could still hear his next words clearly. "Really? Even knowing what, or rather _who_ got him into that wheelch--"

"I said it didn't matter," Niou cut across Yukimura, raising his voice slightly, his grip turning his fingers white.

There was a long pause before Niou inhaled deeply and let out a long breath. He stood up straight, putting his tools down on the workbench. “I can't do this right now.” He ran a hand through his hair and tugged on his ponytail at the end. Sanada noticed the slight tremor to it that Niou tried to hide by pulling on his hair again. “Are you staying over tonight? I'll do it tomorrow.”

“I was planning on it, yes.” Yukimura smiled at him and slid off the bench, already reaching for his clothes. “Wake up early for it though, I think you've got a lot of orders to finish tomorrow.”

Niou frowned and turned away. “Yeah, sure. I'm going to bed, goodnight you two.” Niou's voice was even and his expression neutral – a description not normally matched with the man. His voice was oddly tight and he walked to the door just a bit too stiffly to be normal. Sanada saw his tight grip on the door as he slid it open and then slammed it shut behind him, making the door rattle. He snorted in amusement, hearing the expected loud stomping footsteps down the hallway.

“He still has a lot of growing up to do,” Yukimura said, calmly pulling on his jacket and gloves. “You've been too gentle with him, Genichirou.” He smiled. “I'd almost say you were very fond of him.”

“Don't be ridiculous.”

They heard the door for the room next to them open and close, most likely Akaya going in to work through the night to make up for the time he'd lost that morning while sleeping instead. Niou had probably gone upstairs, not to sleep like he'd said, but most likely sit on the roof as he was wont to do.

Yukimura opened the sliding doors onto the verandah and looked at Sanada's little, though neatly maintained garden. “You're thinking I was too harsh on Masaharu.” A statement, not a question.

“No I wasn't. He doesn't listen to me.”

He knew there were consequences for actions taken in the name of the greater good. Yukimura knew it too. Niou, for all his genius with building things, was... almost refreshingly naïve, in a way Sanada hadn't been in a long time. But he needed to learn it regardless, in the end.

There was a long pause and Yukimura turned to look at him. “Have you heard from Atobe recently? He's dropped out of contact with me for the past few months.”

“He's been busy with board meetings, but he's coming here soon.”

Yukimura's eyebrows rose. “Is he really? I wouldn't think he'd dare be seen slumming it in the ports. Whatever for?”

Sanada's jaw tightened and he looked out to what he could see of his garden from his spot in his desk chair. “It's going to be ten years soon.”

And yet even with ten years passing, the pain, the loss, the hatred and _betrayal_ still felt like a fresh wound. Sanada's grip tightened on the armrest and he took a deep calming breath.

He could feel Yukimura looking at him with something akin to pity and he heard his soft, light, inhumane footsteps across the wooden floor as he came closer. Sanada closed his eyes as Yukimura's arms slid around him. The metal was cold, even with a layer of cloth between them but somehow comforting.

“I think it's time for bed, Genichirou.”

–

Niou had to be shaken awake the next morning out of his warm cocoon of blankets on top of his futon by Sanada. He'd spent most of the night up on the roof staring at the simulated sky on the boundaries of the port and had crawled into bed late enough that the night-working Kirihara was already in bed.

After a few failed attempts at the beginning, Sanada had allowed Akaya to sleep in his room at night, if only to get away from sharing a room with Niou who was known for a very disrupted sleep schedule and prone to moving around a lot at night. However when Yukimura stayed the night, there was always a temporary change in their sleeping arrangements to, Niou joked constantly, give Sanada and Yukimura some _privacy_.

This was usually accompanied with an eyebrow waggle and a suggestive look at the two of them.

Niou yawned his way through breakfast and maintenance of Yukimura's limbs – although with his pride to uphold, he still did a very good job of it. Yukimura didn't mention anything of their conversation last night, or of him being so tired, for which Niou was very grateful. They knew why, of course they both did. And Niou had heard their quiet murmurings through Sanada's open window during the night, too quiet for him to hear exact words but it hadn't been hard to guess that they'd been talking about him.

Sanada had given him a list of Things To Do today that accompanied a suspiciously large Box of Things To Do Today as well as information on a new custom order by one of their regular clients. Niou glanced over it and pushed it over to one side, putting his head down on the table instead. He'd try go to sleep here if the chances of Sanada catching him weren't almost 100% and if he didn't have a deadline for some of the jobs. Niou closed his eyes anyway and exhaled noisily, his eyes opening again as he heard a knock on the door followed by the jingling of the door bells as it opened.

“Oh, you're Masaharu's friend from yesterday. How nice of you to come back,” he heard Yukimura say. No fucking way. Niou was suddenly much more awake and moved to the door, poking his head out to look down the hallway. And sure enough, there was Yagyuu, carefully wheeling his way into the entrance hall.

“I see you had no meetings on today,” Niou said, grinning. “I was going to come see if you were at the cafe before, thanks for saving me the trip.” That was a bit of a lie, but he most definitely would've done it tomorrow.

Yagyuu nodded in acquiescence and thanked Yukimura who shut the front door behind him. “The tea they served me was worse than yesterday,” he said and Niou skipped forward. “I don't think I'll be returning there.”

There was a momentary pause and Yagyuu looked squarely at him, raising his chin as Niou's grin widened. “May I consider this place to be an interim measure while I search for a suitable long-term solution?”

“Just don't come too often or you'll end up like me and _never leave_ ,” Niou said, tugging at Yagyuu's hair and laughing as he brushed his hand away. “Or come everyday, I wouldn't mind.”

Niou ignored the just barely noticeable frown on Yukimura's face, much more interested in the soft chuckle and smile from Yagyuu at his words. He was about to head off when he paused, turning around to look at Yukimura.

“Oh, right. Seiichi,” Niou said, pausing, putting a hand on Yagyuu's shoulder to stop him from moving. “Sanada said you had stuff to talk to me about last night,” which obviously they never got around to and hopefully Yukimura wouldn't raise the reason why. “Did you want to talk about it now?”

Yukimura blinked in surprise and then his face relaxed into a smile. He looked at Yagyuu who was was patiently waiting and then back at Niou. “No, I'll talk to you when I'm here next.” His smile broadened, showing a hint of teeth. “Have fun with your friend today.”

Niou waved at Yukimura and then started down the hallway, pushing Yagyuu ahead of him despite the other man needing no help really in manoeuvring. He stopped Yagyuu in front of the work bench that was cluttered with new orders that Sanada had left that morning.

“Don't move, I'll be right back,” Niou said and he went off to the kitchen to make some tea, yelling out a farewell to Yukimura as he left and heard the front door's bell ring again.

It didn't take too long to boil the water and pour out a cup of tea – the chosen cup a bright red with a cheerful pattern of honey bees on it – and Niou made his way carefully back to his work room. Yagyuu was still in the same place he'd left him, only he'd pulled the Box of Things towards him and was looking at the list. Niou considered the straight backed posture and the very slight tilt of his head from the doorway before he made a noise and Yagyuu turned around to look at him. He noticed the paper was placed, almost subtly, back on top of the box in the same movement.

“Nosing around in other people's things, were you?” Not that Niou particularly cared. The list was all little, tedious jobs that he didn't want to do anyway.

“I was merely curious whether your claims to building space craft were true.” Yagyuu smiled and looked back at the paper. “Or whether you had another box full of night lights.”

Niou pulled a face and moved closer, putting the cup of tea down on the bench. He pulled out his chair and sat down, resting his chin on his hand. “I'm pretty sure Sanada's punishing me for something. I don't know what, but I've been getting just shit jobs lately.”

Yagyuu just made a humming noise in what he assumed was agreement and Niou sighed, sliding down so he was almost lying against the table surface. “I don't suppose you've suddenly gained a great understanding of this stuff after yesterday and want to do it for me instead?”

“If you insisted, I think I could make a decent attempt.”

Niou grinned up at him and shifted so his head was a little more comfortably cushioned by his arms. “Oh good. You can make your...” he thought for a moment, “Your special 89 adjustments to each piece.” He laughed.

He purposely made a show of closing his eyes and faked a few snores. Yagyuu was silent across the bench from his but he heard the sounds of the cup of tea being picked up and put down again a few times.

“... Are you actually going to sleep there?” Yagyuu asked finally and Niou shrugged.

“Maybe? I only got like an hour's sleep last night.” Niou yawned loudly. “You can wake me up if you need any help.”

With his eyes still closed, he heard the sounds of Yagyuu getting tools out and opening the box. There was the rustling of paper and the clunks as things were placed down on the bench. He had been joking, really, when he suggested Yagyuu do the work for him. He'd also been joking about sleeping, but the sound of Yagyuu's soft breathing that he subconsciously synced his own to and the just general quite calm, peaceful presence of the other man was doing a good job at making a fool of him instead.

“Mmmm, be careful of the explosives,” Niou mumbled as he heard Yagyuu pull something else out of the box. He vaguely heard Yagyuu questioning him, most likely about what he was talking about, but no sound came out as he moved his mouth to reply. And any further questions fell on deaf ears as Niou slipped into sleep.

–

Sanada had been keeping a careful ear on what he could hear from Niou's workroom the moment that Yagyuu had arrived. Sitting in the open hallway, looking out onto the garden provided a nice vantage point where he could also enjoy a smoke.

There was the murmur of voices, quieter than Niou's normal speaking level but Sanada could catch the two different voices and snatches of words. And then it went silent. Niou had the odd tendency to sing while he worked seriously and so Sanada always knew when he was actually being productive – his current music of choice seemed to be those irritating, toneless colony-hopping pop princess groups. The constantly stretching silence, with only the sounds of things being quietly moved around, was unnerving.

Still, Sanada allowed himself to finish his cigarette first, looking out at the neatly raked small garden in front of him. He would have to show Atobe when he arrived.

He finally rose, moving towards the door to Niou's workroom. It was open, which was odd in and of itself, but it was what was happening inside that was even stranger. Niou was sleeping quite soundly in what looked like an extremely uncomfortable position and Yagyuu was... looking like he was quite competently repairing one of the items from Niou's job list.

“What are you doing?”

Yagyuu didn't flinch at the sound of him speaking or even look slightly surprised as he twisted around to look at Sanada, carefully placing the tools down on the bench. “Masaharu wanted to rest and since I am imposing on his work and hospitality, I thought I should make myself useful.”

“Do you know what you're doing?”

“I know a little.”

Sanada frowned at him. “Were you formally taught? Or did you learn everything from Niou's explanations yesterday?”

Yagyuu's gaze sharpened and his lips noticeably thinned. “If you want to ask me if I've been genetically modified, I think it's more polite if you ask outright.” He shook his head and turned away. “I'm an entirely natural human, Genichirou Sanada. If I'd been enhanced in any way, I like to think it would have helped prevent me from getting in the predicament I'm in currently.” Yagyuu gestured down at his blanket-covered lap and gave him a bland smile over his shoulder. “I took some engineering classes at university, to answer your first question.”

To that, Sanada really had nothing to say. He'd had similar thoughts to Yagyuu, when embryonic modification was at its peak during his military service. How different would he have been, how would his ability to serve in the military have changed if he'd had his genes modified to enhance certain skills and attributes?

He stared at the back of Yagyuu's head for a moment longer before he snorted. “Don't let him slack off all day. He has to work to make it worth keeping him around.”

“I'm nearly finished my cup of tea, I'll wake him up when I need a second.”

“Tell him to make me one as well.”

Sanada closed the door behind him but he still heard Yagyuu's soft laughter and the sound of him picking things up again, undoubtedly to continue working.

It was typical Niou, Sanada thought, trying to find someone to do his work for him. But even as he thought that, there was still the heavy sense of unease hanging over him and Sanada glanced back at the closed door. He shook his head and made his way down to the back room. He was going to have to adjust the workloads if this was going to be a regular thing.


	3. Dreamer

Yanagi had told him many times that he was good at hiding his thoughts and gathering reliable data on him was extremely difficult. Sanada too had always been easy to fool, at least for the first few years. Nowadays he didn't fall for the simpler tricks and lies, as used to them as he was. But despite how much he may laugh at Yanagi's data collection and however often he said that Sanada was too honest and easy to trick, he found himself desperately hoping that he really was just good at fooling people, whenever he looked at Yagyuu.

Were his expressions, tone, words normal? Was he doing a good job at being his usual carefree self? Or could Yagyuu somehow sense the guilt that bubbled continually under the surface and grew larger every moment that Niou got to know him better?

It had started off as a challenge, really. Yukimura had asked him to pair up with Jackal, an explosives expert, to build a device that would bring down the protective barriers around the Earth cities. But what had started as a simple explosive device that would overload and shut down the power sources had changed when Yanagi had uncovered the plans for the city foundations and Niou realising they could be used to simulate earthquakes.

Nineteen failed trial runs it had taken, spread out over a number of months before the large simultaneous and devastating attacks on the earth cities – twenty had always been Niou's lucky number. Yukimura had asked later if he'd purposely made it like that and Niou had admitted that perhaps the last couple of trial runs had failed on purpose. That had made Yukimura slightly irritated but he'd waved off Niou's explanations about how things went better for him after 20 attempts, as long as it had worked. And it had, more terrible and greater than Yukimura had asked for or ever expected when he'd first posed the job idea to Niou.

It had been something exciting, challenging and different from the usual tedium of life at the mechanic shop and Niou had relished in the chance to try and overcome something that everyone said was impossible. He didn't think of the consequences when he succeeded, didn't think that the people he'd seen hurt in the endless news coverage really had anything to do with him. Until he offered a good cup of tea to a stranger in a wheelchair.

...

He hadn't intentionally meant to hurt Yagyuu.

Somehow he didn't think the bespectacled man would understand it that way if he ever found out. 

\--

It was almost terrifying how easy it was to fall into a comfortable relationship with Yagyuu, far easier than it had been with anyone else Niou knew, really.

Niou enjoyed being physically close to people, something which wasn't the most appreciated of his traits amongst his companions. Sanada tended to frown disapprovingly and shrug off his arms when Niou slung them around his shoulders, Kirihara had learned to tolerate them until he could make a well timed duck out from under them - no doubt worried about what sort of prank would befall him if he stayed there too long. Yukimura tolerated them with smiles, but the sensation of being touched back by Yukimura with his cold, metal fingers wasn't something Niou enjoyed. 

He had initially found the way Yagyuu's eyebrow twitched slightly whenever Niou brushed against him, extremely entertaining and he'd gone out of his way to try and work some physical touch into every interaction they had. Whether it be an arm slung around his shoulder that Yagyuu pushed off without even blinking or even just a casual brushing of their hands when Niou passed him a cup of tea that made Yagyuu's grip on the cup tighten almost imperceptibly.

It was only into the fourth week of regular visits that Niou realised with a start that somehow, without him noticing, the brief touches to annoy him had somehow turned into longer ones, into a general closeness when they sat together and once, a one-sided spontaneous hug of celebration that had just happened so naturally, Niou hadn't even realised he was doing it.

“If you insist on hugging me, please refrain from strangling me in the process,” had been Yagyuu's reaction to it. He hadn't complained when Niou loosened his arms but kept hugging him for a little while longer, if only to see what would happen.

Once again, Yagyuu had refused the invitation to stay for dinner, even though Niou had asked him every time as he left for the day. At least at this point he had started reluctantly accepting lunch. Or rather, he had been too polite to refuse the plate that Niou slammed down in front of him every day and, at one point, had tried to actually force-feed him, pressing the spoon against his mouth and being much too close for comfort in an attempt to intimidate him to agreeing. Niou had a feeling Yagyuu had started eating without any further complaints to stop Niou from ever repeating that incident.

So, instead of hanging out with Yagyuu for the night, he was stuck sitting with one Bunta Marui in the hallway, looking out on Sanada's garden while Marui smoked. Niou pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them.

"Hey, what's up with you tonight? You're really quiet," Marui asked. He was one of Sanada's regular visitors from the early days of the shop, who for some reason thought from the get-go that hanging out with Niou was OK and Niou had just accepted it.

"Hiroshi is too easy to get along with and I hate it." Niou sighed and he felt Marui pat him on the back.

"Yeah I know. He was pretty nice." Marui had met Yagyuu that day, poking his head into what had become _their_ workroom. Sanada had been increasing _their_ daily workload and it seemed that Yagyuu's work was satisfactory since he hadn't complained. "Lucky you, finding a friend like that."

He paused and looked at Marui. The other man pulled on his cigarette and exhaled the smoke. "Friend?" He took a deep breath and let out a shaky laugh, running his hand through his hair. It was suddenly shaking too. "Oh shit, Hiroshi's my friend."

"If I didn't know you better, by the way you were hanging off him, I'd think you guys were like... _together_."

Niou rubbed his face and swore. “Don't say stuff like that.” He closed his eyes and pressed his face into his knees. “I don't deserve stuff like that.”

There was a long silence between them and Niou breathed deeply and loudly, keeping his eyes shut. He could hear the low murmur of Sanada and Akaya's voices further down the hallway, most likely having some discussion about whatever it was Akaya was working on.

Marui elbowed him and held out his packet of cigarettes. “You going to explain or do I have to make bad guesses first?” 

Niou looked at them for a long moment before he sat up properly, taking one and accepting the lighter. He smoked very rarely, starting from the first one that he'd nicked from Sanada's workroom when he'd first arrived, but he could justify it right now. Even so, it still took him a long time to bring himself to start talking.

“You know what Jackal and I were collaborating on for Yukimura, right?” Niou asked, running a hand through his hair again.

“Yeah, sure. Jackal told me about it over coffee a couple of times.” Marui and Jackal lived in the same colony and caught up regularly, occasionally at Sanada's place, even though it required a few hours journey. “We watched the news report together when it happened...” Marui trailed off and he looked at Niou. It was easy to see the dawning realisation in the change in his expression from surprise that slowly changed to horror and then to what Niou could only say was something akin to pity.

“Oh shit.” Marui dropped his cigarette and he hurriedly moved to sweep it into the garden and stub it out with his foot. “Oh shit, you poor bastard.”

Marui laughed awkwardly and he hopped back up into the hallway. There was another long silence between them before Marui moved, starting down the hallway towards Sanada's workroom, laughing again, more to cover the tension than finding any actual humour in the situation. “I can't do this sober. I'm going to see if Sanada has any alcohol or something.”

“Back cupboard, behind that old shogi board of his,” Niou called out after him. He sighed and flopped backwards, lying down across the hallway.

It was too easy to forget what had happened and what he'd been responsible for, until Yagyuu had some mobility issues that were becoming less and less the more comfortable he became with the workshop and the more that Niou and his room adapted. It was hard to reconcile the current days of talking and laughing in his workroom with Yagyuu, with the long, exhausting days of test after test, design after design and long nights of talking with Jackal and occasionally Yanagi. It was hard to link Yagyuu and his _family_ with the stories he'd been told by Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi about the social elite when the man was pulling cobwebs out of Niou's hair from an adventure into the backroom for spare tools.

But when he did remember, the returning guilt was just getting larger by the day and Niou feared that sooner or later he was going to just confess to Yagyuu and end up begging for forgiveness he knew he wasn't likely to get.

Niou sighed again and watched as Marui returned, crowing in victory, a bottle of sake in his hand.

It would be so much easier if Yagyuu was an asshole like he was meant to be.

–

It was his day off the next day so Niou indulged very heartily in the sake well into the night – although he probably would have done the same regardless of work or not – and enjoyed a decent night's sleep with Marui sprawled out on the floor next to him in his room.

He woke up, face down in his pillow to the sound of Sanada stomping up the stairs, which was fairly easy to ignore. Unfortunately the window being opened and a pillow whacked on his head were less hard to ignore and Niou rolled over with a groan, hitting Marui with his arm as he did so.

“Your friend's here to see you,” Sanada said. “Go deal with him.” And then he left, switching the light on as he left as though letting in the sunlight wasn't enough.

It was extremely tempting to just roll over and go back to sleep and somehow he didn't think Sanada would be back upstairs. But he replayed Sanada's words through his head as he closed his eyes: _your friend's here... your friend... friend..._

“Damnit.”

After his conversation with Marui yesterday, it could only be Yagyuu that Sanada was referring to and even with a pounding headache, Niou was loathe to tell him to just go away. He almost wanted to yell out to Sanada to tell Yagyuu to come up to the room, but then he stopped himself just as the first syllable was out of his mouth. Right.

He made himself stand up, grasping the wall to help keep himself upright. He did remember that they'd moved from the hallway up to the bedroom at some point during the second bottle of sake but he had no idea what happened after that. 

It took considerable effort to get down the steep, narrow stairs and he poked his head into his workroom only to find it empty. It had started looking slowly but steadily tidier after Yagyuu became a regular part of the room everyday and now he could actually see his desk. Niou frowned and shut the door again, and after a detour via the toilet, he made his way to the kitchen. 

He found Yagyuu there at the table, enjoying a cup of tea and looking at his handheld communicator. Niou collapsed into the seat opposite him and he heard the scrape of something against the table as Yagyuu pushed what turned out to be a glass of water, some food and a packet of pain killers across to him.

“Thank you,” Niou mumbled, draining the glass in one go along with the pain killers. Yagyuu wordlessly took it back and moved to refill it and Niou watched him out of the corner of his eye.

“I was quite surprised when I arrived to find out you were still asleep,” Yagyuu said, handing the glass over and going back to his communicator. “Even more surprising was Sanada not waking you up until after I arrived.”

Niou dragged a hand over his face and poked at his breakfast. The beans were looking a bit congealed at this point and the bread was nearly cold, but he started to eat it anyway, feeling the pain killers starting to kick in. “Yeah... yeah, today's my day off and I got a bit carried away with Bunta.”

“Day off?” It entertained Niou that Yagyuu focused on that point, rather than questioning his activities with Marui. Perhaps he just didn't really care all that much. Which was good, since there was no risk that he might bring up _why_ they'd felt the need to go in search of alcohol.

“Yeah, I get one day off a week. You've just always missed it.”

“I see.” Yagyuu didn't look up from his screen and took another sip of tea. Niou wondered vaguely how many cups he went through a day.

Breakfast was eaten in almost silence between them – what time was it, anyway? - and Niou munched on his toast, moving onto coffee after his third glass of water. He heard the jingling of the bells at the front door followed by Jackal's voice. Most likely here to pick up his wayward fellow colonist and take him home because Jackal was far too nice for his own good.

He yawned and pushed his empty plate away from him, looking at Yagyuu who still had his eyes glued to his communicator. "What're you doing? Looking at pictures of pretty ladies?" Niou asked, reaching out with his foot to nudge the bottom of Yagyuu's wheelchair.

Yagyuu gave him a slightly disapproving look and put the device down, sighing a little. "I spoke with my father last night and I've been looking at shuttles to the colonies." Niou's expression slipped just briefly into shock but Yagyuu didn't seem to notice. He sighed again and kept talking. "The council's locked down the colonies since the attack on Earth and even private craft has to go through weeks of paperwork before they can get clearance to travel. Security is getting very tight now."

It made him wonder how Jackal, Yukimura and Marui seemed to be able to travel here so frequently. Though perhaps, as usual, the protection afforded by the council to the lower-level colonies wasn't as difficult to navigate. Or it wouldn't have surprised him if Yukimura had pulled some strings.

"Why do you need to go there?" Niou said, the words slipping out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop it.

Yagyuu's smile was rueful. "I do have to go back home, and back to work at some point."

Niou made himself laugh. "Work? I thought Sanada had dragged you into one of those binding lifetime contracts here."

"I'm a doctor. I was placed on 'forced medical leave of an indeterminate length'," Yagyuu said that with a bite of bitterness to his voice as though he was quoting some particularly unsavoury correspondence. "But I hope to return to work eventually."

He made to ask another question, but Yagyuu raised his hand and Niou fell silent. " _And_ , my apartment is probably filthy after weeks of being away."

Niou knew about the Yagyuu family situation – possibly most of which had been learned in the past two weeks covertly at night on his communicator looking at old articles. Their main house was on Alpha 3, courtesy of his mother's position on the council and his father's high-profile research. The house on Earth that Yagyuu had been staying at was a council-provided house for his father's use when he worked at the hospital in the city. It had been just a short distance from the epicentre of the attack.

"Where is it? I'll come clean it for you," Niou leaned on the table and forced a grin. Yagyuu laughed, which surprised him more than anything. Yagyuu's laughter was often reserved, quiet and more often than not he preferred a rather restrained smile than openly laughing.

"Seeing the state of your workroom, I wouldn't trust you to clean anything, Masaharu," Yagyuu said finally.

" _Excuse me_ , it's been much tidier lately." Niou stopped as Yagyuu gave him a pointed look and he pulled a face. "… Lately being... since you've been here."

They fell silent and Niou could hear Marui's voice, though he sounded more subdued than normal, heading towards the front door. He heard Jackal calling out a goodbye and Niou raised his hand to wave before belatedly realising that Jackal couldn't see it anyway. Oh well, he didn't seem too bothered by it anyway, since Niou heard the front door shut moments after that anyway.

“So, the shuttles,” Niou said, getting up to fetch the pot of coffee for a refill. He held it out to Yagyuu who shook his head. “Could your mother do anything about it?” He tried to keep his voice casual, but he put the coffee pot down a little harder than usual and maybe his fingers on his cup had turned white.

Yagyuu's eyebrows rose slightly but he didn't say anything about Niou knowing about his mother's position of influence. Maybe he had just assumed that Niou would poke his nose into it and it didn't surprise him. After all, Niou had little doubts that Yagyuu had asked Sanada and Akaya about him.

“She _could_ , but I dislike asking for her help,” Yagyuu pushed up his glasses and drummed his fingers on the side of his teacup. “Regardless, it doesn't matter. There have been some slight delays with my father's work. Even if I returned home, I couldn't go back to work for a while longer.”

“You should stay here. You don't have to go back, you know,” Niou said and he bit his lip, turning away from Yagyuu, pretending to pour himself some more coffee. 

“Masaharu...”

He needed to remember, he needed to constantly remind himself that things were getting too dangerous and Yagyuu was too good at worming his way into Niou's life. But then there was that horrible, overpowering part of him that just wanted to clutch Yagyuu closer and keep him safe in Sanada's stupidly named shop and away from the threat of any further attacks masterminded by Yukimura. So that there'd be no more guilt if he got caught up in it again and things could just remain the way they were now.

He had no doubts that Yukimura had his eyes set on the colonies next and while any discussion had been postponed by Yagyuu's presence here and Yukimura's travel plans, he knew the topic was going to come up eventually. And he had a sinking feeling in his stomach that he wasn't going to be as eager to take up the challenge when it did.

“I'll... I'll build you some legs and I'm pretty sure Sanada is okay with you continuing working here... and Akaya likes you being around and Bunta and Jackal are always here and they both seem to like you and you still haven't met Data-man—”

“ _Masaharu_ ,” Yagyuu's voice was sharp and Niou nearly dropped the pot of coffee.

He turned around to face Yagyuu and paused as Yagyuu held out his hand, with a slightly impatient look on his face. Niou sidled closer and put his hand in Yagyuu's, feeling the grip on his hand tighten and he watched as Yagyuu patted the top of his hand in an almost bored, clinical way.

“Masaharu, I'll stay a while longer _if_ it continues to be acceptable to everyone here.” He squeezed Niou's hand almost painfully tight as Niou tried to interrupt. “However, I am going to have to go home eventually.” Niou hated the matter of fact tone Yagyuu spoke with. “And I cannot accept you building me mechanical legs. I can't make you go to that level of work for something temporary.”

Niou took a deep breath and it was unnerving just how calming having Yagyuu hold his hand was. He sighed and pulled out his communicator to check the time. Just past midday. “Let's go to the trading markets,” he said. “I wanted to get some spices and we can eat greasy food and get heartburn and question our life choices together.” He laughed, maybe a little hysterically but Yagyuu didn't seem to notice.

“Please go wash first,” Yagyuu said, giving him a pointed look up and down, his smile becoming just a little tight.

He laughed again and finally pulled his hand free from Yagyuu's. “Yeah okay. Okay, I'll be fast.”

–

The trading markets were a bit of a walk from Sanada's shop, but it was easier to relax and breathe and forget again when they were out in the open air. Niou fell into easy step beside Yagyuu and he found himself chattering about anything. How they needed to make some sort of wheelchair attachment for the stairs so Yagyuu could get up them – Yagyuu just made a humming noise in response to that and didn't say anything more – how he'd come to live at Sanada Dojo and how he'd never quite full repaired the heating system that he'd pulled apart when he was younger. He suspected that Sanada knew but was just waiting for Niou to get around to it.

When they arrived there, it was a rush of noise and colour that was far different from the subdued colours of Sanada's workshop where Niou was by far the noisiest person. Niou moved to push Yagyuu's wheelchair along through the crowd, swearing at people who go in their way.

“I was hoping I could find some products from the old East Asia Republic,” Yagyuu said over his shoulder and Niou nodded, trotting through the stalls. He didn't come to the trading markets too often, usually Sanada sent Akaya out on errands if he couldn't wait for Yukimura or Yanagi to visit since he was very, very slightly more reliable than Niou. And while new stalls opened up regularly, the general layout and separation of goods remained relatively the same.

It was almost too easy, Yagyuu stopping them as he found something he wanted to look at and Niou almost subconsciously moving them to areas that he knew Yagyuu might enjoy. He took some great joy in making Yagyuu eat the food there, seeing the tightening of his jaw as he bit into something particularly spicy and the look on his face when Niou laughed and clapped his hands like a child.

“No offence, but this doesn't really seem like the sort of thing you'd be interested in,” Niou said as they stared at the piles of bolts of fabric, having finally found a stall that Yagyuu deemed acceptable.

Yagyuu lifted one off the pile and studied it. “I know a little about it, but it's not for me. And these are genuine, how lovely.”

“For a lady friend on the colonies?” Niou kept his voice light and teasing and he grinned as Yagyuu gave him an annoyed look.

“My _mother_ mentioned wanting some in passing,” Yagyuu said, handing Niou the bolt of fabric to hold and reaching for another.

“... Oh.”

There was an awkward silence between them that Yagyuu didn't seem overly concerned about as he worked his way through the pile, occasionally handing Niou one to hold, or taking one away from him to put back in the pile. Niou tapped his feet and tried to look halfway interested, but he really couldn't.

Finally, Yagyuu sighed and gestured for the stall owner to come over. “Since you're being particularly nosey about it and will undoubtedly ask again if I don't answer: no, I do not have a _lady friend_ that I will be buying gifts for.”

“Oh.” The change in his tone wasn't missed by Yagyuu judging from the sideways look and the raised eyebrow.

“I'll take these four, thank you,” Yagyuu said, gesturing for Niou to hand them over.

Niou haggled with the stall owner over prices, putting his years of training by Yanagi to good use. The man was a tightarse over spending and he had tried – and was still trying, if Niou was honest with himself – to impart his skills on Sanada's little group. They were silent again as the man wrapped up Yagyuu's four bolts of fabric, giving them to Niou who passed them to Yagyuu.

“What about a male friend? I'm not judging if you do, by the way,” Niou asked as they walked away, leading them towards the stall whose spices Sanada particularly favoured.

Yagyuu turned his head and gave him such a disparaging look that Niou raised one hand in submission and rather quickly dropped the subject.

–

They returned a few hours later to Sanada's shop, Yagyuu holding all their purchases and Niou walking behind him pushing his wheelchair. They had fallen into a light, easy conversation about the merits of the different classes of shuttles, something which Yagyuu knew rather a lot about for a doctor, and Niou knew far too little – on anything other than the engines and flight controls, anyway. He trailed off midway through detailing the superior corner handling of the newer Azalean class models as he spotted the sleek car parked a few paces down the street as he turned the corner.

“Shit.”

Yagyuu blinked and he glanced over his shoulder. “Yes?”

“That idiot is here, damn.” Niou didn't explain as they made their way down the street and just to check, Niou glanced at the number plate of the car. Of course it was him, there was no one else who visited Sanada who had anything quite so expensive, or was flashy and stupid enough to bring it into this area of the port.

He pushed open the door and was about to call out a greeting but his voice died when he came face to face with Sanada and his guest in the hallway. Well, any hope he had of them being in the back room was for naught.

“Councilman Atobe?” That was Yagyuu, sounding almost normal but Niou could detect the surprise in his voice. Of course he'd be surprised. Atobe was one of the 24 councilmen of the colonies and to see him standing in Sanada's entrance hall must have been the last thing he'd ever have expected.

“Ah, you're Yagyuu's son. She mentioned you were staying at this port,” Atobe said and then he turned his attention to Niou. “And you're looking as ragged as ever. I thought Genichirou might have done something about you since last year, but apparently not.”

“Keigo. Leave him alone.”

Atobe waved his hand and turned away from them. “I'll be in the car, Genichirou. Don't take too long.” He paused as he reached the door and Yagyuu moved out of his way and glanced at him. “Your mother's been constantly talking about you. I suggest you call her. Good day.”

Yagyuu nodded. “Councilman.”

And then Atobe was gone, shutting the door behind him. It was only then that Niou noticed the packed bag Sanada was holding and the time of year fell into place. Right.

“I'm leaving for a few days,” Sanada said, looking at both of them and then looking at Niou. “A list of jobs are in your room. Feed Akaya.” He paused and frowned. “Don't destroy the house. Remember to sleep.” Sanada then turned his attention Yagyuu. “Make sure he eats.”

It was hard to read Yagyuu's expression as Sanada left and they remained in an uncomfortable silence, listening to the car doors outside open and close. He was glad when Yagyuu silently moved towards their workroom and Niou trailed silently behind him. There was a slight crease between Yagyuu's eyebrows and Niou fidgeted, hearing Atobe's car drive off. It had a distinctive sound to the engine, customised by Niou during one of his visits a couple of years ago.

He was surprised Atobe hadn't insisted he return it to normal, actually.

Yagyuu maneuvered his way towards the workbench and put their parcels down before he finally breathed out slowly and turned to fully face Niou.

“Masaharu, can you please explain to me _truthfully_ what this place is exactly?”


	4. Intermission: Sanada

Tezuka had always been a part of his life, as long as Sanada could remember. 

They both grew up in Daedalus City on the moon, the city renown for its advances in spacecraft technology and large-scale production sites. Sanada had moved there from Earth to live with his paternal grandparents, following the death of his parents during one of the unmanned aircraft strikes by the Western European Alliance.

His grandfather's closest friend from his own childhood was Tezuka's grandfather who lived in the next street. The two of them met frequently and following Sanada's arrival in his life, both Genemon Sanada and Kunikazu Tezuka began to bring along their respective grandchildren to their meetings. Kunimitsu was easy to befriend, even if they both shared an inability to properly express themselves. Their friendship had been – and was for the large part till his death – characterised by long silences, sometimes awkward sentences and the occasional argument but with an overarching fierce loyalty and protectiveness towards each other as they grew to be like brothers, rather than friends.

It had been Sanada who challenged their seniors at school when they had broken Tezuka's arm, ignoring the other boy telling him “Genichirou, it's fine,” and noticing instead how white his face was and how tightly he gripped his upper arm with his other hand. He had lost that particular fight and suffered a long lecture from his grandfather as his grandmother dabbed ointment on his face and bandaged his knuckles. But it had seemed like the sweetest victory as Tezuka bowed and thanked him the next morning on the way to school, both of them looking at beaten up as the other.

That particular act of loyalty or any that followed, Sanada thought, didn't make up in any way for what he had done a few years later. They had been careless that day as Sanada took Tezuka into the workshop he'd been apprenticed at for maintaining spacecraft. He had replayed the scene so many times since, trying to think about what he could have done differently to avoid the situation. How to avoid the loose piece of metal falling and cutting open Tezuka's eyelid, scarring his eye. Medical treatment for eye injuries and growing replacements was only just advancing at that stage and though Tezuka regained partial use of his eye, his eyesight was never 100% again. Tezuka never blamed Sanada for the accident but Sanada never forgave himself either.

They enlisted for the military together when they were twenty, and moved to the colonies together. It was on their first day that they met Keigo Atobe who was still riding on the coattails of his father's position as the current Chairman of the Council and the notoriety and importance of the Atobe name from generations of success. It was Atobe who had made a rude remark about Sanada's appearance and Tezuka who promptly had him on the ground with a beautifully executed judo throw.

Atobe refused to talk about that incident now, more than twenty years on. He instead preferred to remember incidents such as Tezuka getting top scores in the close combat training and leading their team of three to victory in the annual challenges, year after year, or the week that Atobe had taken them both to the Alpha 1 colony shortly after graduation.

Neither of them talked about their military service much, except to remember the lighter things: Tezuka rising through the ranks to become the youngest serving captain, his skill at close-range combat and strategy overcoming any initial disadvantage from his poor eyesight, something that still angered Atobe now; their short mission to the debris belt and piloting the large junk-collecting machines for the first time ever with no prior training; the incidents when they stopped over at the various colonies or cities, and the chaotic introduction of Atobe to both his and Tezuka's grandfather's.

But they never discussed their final year on the front lines or the incidents that followed in their communicator calls or messages. They rarely, if ever, spoke about it with their own companions. Yukimura had asked early into their relationship and Sanada had told him briefly. Yanagi had done his own research and had only come to him for clarification on a few points. Sanada didn't know if Akaya or Niou knew and he didn't care enough to ask them. It was easier to try and forget, most of the time.

It was only once a year, when Sanada travelled to the colonies to see Atobe that they allowed themselves to remember that year and to remind themselves of what motivated them to continue along their chosen path.

The casualties of war. Civilians that got caught up in the conflict, accidental shots fired amidst a chaotic battlefield whose origin couldn't be determined. The shouldering of the blame onto a young captain who was charged with war crimes due to his considered unimportance in the eyes of the Council, his convenient presence during the battle and the need to provide some sort of sick justice to the families of those that died.

Tezuka's silent, resigned acceptance as the charges were read out.

The unanimous verdict by the Council. 

…

The dishonourable execution.

He hadn't needed long to think about his answer when Yukimura had approached him shortly after. And when Sanada spoke to Atobe, there had been the briefest of considerations over the communicator before he had agreed to lend his support.

They had fought honourably for the safety of their society and followed the orders of the Council to that end. And in return, they received the greatest betrayal and loss that had festered like an open wound into deep resentment and hatred.

–

It was always uncomfortable coming to the colonies, especially since Atobe insisted that Sanada stay with him instead of finding a hotel. In the cluster of colonies, the Alpha series was arguably the wealthiest, oldest and the most influential, with its primary specialisation in government and politics. It was on Alpha 1 that the Council headquarters was situated, as the most centrally positioned within the cluster. Courtesy of his family's history and wealth, Atobe lived on Alpha 1 and was one of the only councilmen that did.

The ports gained most of their wealth from their neutral position as a stop-over and trading point between the Earth and the Colonies. But for the sprawl in the ports that moved beyond the central trading district into the lower socio-economic areas such as where Sanada's shop was, the comparison between it and the extravagance and displays of wealth in the colonies was always troubling.

"I was surprised to see Yagyuu's son at your shop, Genichirou," Atobe said, looking at Sanada over the rim of his tea cup and raising an eyebrow. They were sitting for a quiet breakfast looking out on Atobe's garden and Sanada enjoyed seeing the difference between his own humble East Asia Republic garden and Atobe's sprawling Western European Alliance grounds. “He's not really the type of stray you normally let into your home.”

Atobe had disapproved of both Niou and Akaya being brought into his shop, something he continued to reiterate every time they met and during most of their communicator conversations as well. It had gotten increasingly easier to ignore as time went on and now it was almost as routine as saying hello and goodbye.

Sanada grunted and watched a bird swoop from a tree. They didn't have birds on the ports, or any animals really, except pets and the ones that were imported for trade. “Niou found him. I didn't know until later.” He paused and glanced at Atobe who was still watching him expectantly. “He's a decent worker and Niou likes him.”

“I do believe you're too kind of a person, Genichirou.” Atobe laughed and leaned back in his chair. “I know Kunimitsu would say the same thing if he listened to you talk about your strays.”

He didn't know how to reply to that and he frowned, trying to ignore the way Atobe's smile turned smug. Thankfully he was saved by a ringing of Atobe's communicator, words flashing up on a hidden screen on the glass wall. Atobe tsked and stood up, accepting the call with a press of a button.

A vaguely familiar man's face appeared on the screen and he started to speak. _”Sir, your presence has been required at a Council meeting this afternoon at--”_

“They can have the meeting without me, or have they suddenly become that grossly incompetent? I specified the next three days for leave.” Atobe's tone changed when he spoke to others and Sanada turned away.

_”Sir, this is an emergency meeting called to receive and discuss newly received intelligence reports regarding any follow-up activity by the terrorist group responsible for the Earth cities' collapse. The Council Chairman has also requested a report regarding current technological safety measures for the Colonies and current negotiations for the repair and upgrades on Earth.”_

Atobe exhaled loudly and glanced at Sanada before looking back at the screen. “Get Yuushi Oshitari to attend instead, he can give a satisfactory enough report in my stead.” He paused and pulled out his handheld from his pocket. “I'll schedule a meeting with him in three days' time regarding the Council meeting. Until then, send all messages from the Council to Yuushi, I have other important business to attend to.” He closed the communication window and turned to face Sanada.

“Oshitari won't be happy you did that,” Sanada said.

Atobe waved away his words and was already most likely messaging Oshitari. “You forget, Genichirou, he knew Kunimitsu as well,” he said, which was a good enough explanation, really.

There was a pause before Atobe put his hand held communicator away. “We should go now or we'll be late.”

–

It was a short trip to Delta 6, using the bridges between the colonies followed by a drive to the memorial graveyard. Sanada drove, as he always did when they were together. They were largely silent until they got into the car, surrounded previously by too many other travellers to openly discuss anything.

“What are you going to do about the intelligence reports?”

Atobe looked unconcerned in the short glances Sanada got of his face. “Nothing. I doubt there is anything of real substance in them; Yukimura and Yanagi have been too good at covering their tracks, you don't need to worry about them.”

Sanada grunted and Atobe turned to look at him properly.

“Oh? Are you concerned about your strays, then?” Sanada didn't answer and Atobe laughed. “If Yanagi and Yuushi couldn't find any information on them, I doubt anyone else could.” He shrugged and Sanada could feel his eyes on him still. “Besides their identification number, nothing else exists about them.”

They had had to register their identities and get them identification numbers when Sanada took them in. Normally everyone was given one at birth, but Niou had no memory of his and Akaya... well, what abandoned ten year old knew his identification number by heart?

Atobe sighed. “I'd be more concerned about Yagyuu, if I were you. I know how talkative Niou can be, he could jeopardise our group's security with his new playmate.”

Sanada had thought of that but there was nothing much he could do, really. He had lost his chance weeks ago, if he had wanted one. He had a feeling Atobe knew that already though, so he just focused on the road and tried to ignore the sound of Atobe sighing again.

They would never forget the way to Tezuka's grave, a path that was engraved in their memories from the day they had buried him, Atobe fighting for weeks to get him a proper burial and pulling on all the influence he could muster. It had been a quiet funeral, just the two of them. Kunikazu Tezuka had passed away prior to Tezuka's disgrace and for that Sanada was very thankful.

There were no words spoken as they cleared away the weeds around the headstone and Sanada traced the letters of Tezuka's name, brushing away dirt that never seemed to get cleaned by the graveyard maintenance.

He stood up at attention and saluted, seeing Atobe fall into position next to him. Even after they let their hands drop, they remained standing, silently.

It had only been weeks after the execution that Sanada had found out about Tezuka's furious negotiations with the Council. The negotiations in which he had agreed to shouldering most of the blame for what had occurred to save Sanada and Atobe from facing the same fate. 

The negotiations that had led to Atobe being demoted before he left the military and Sanada being dishonourably discharged but his life spared.

“Do you ever wonder if we made a mistake, going down this path, Genichirou? Do you think he would disapprove of what we've done?”

He had dearly wanted to hate Tezuka for his selfishness ten years ago, but even in the nights that had immediately followed where him and Atobe had drunk themselves into oblivion to escape the grief and the silence, he couldn't bring himself to and he still couldn't.

Captain Tezuka, the noble fool who did what was right.

Kunimitsu, their team mate and closest friend.

“No, I don't.”


	5. Intermission: Yukimura

His family had always been neutral as long as he could remember. Yukimura had been born in the Kingdom of Scandinavia, one of the last neutral places on Earth that was a signatory of the Neutral Territory Treaty that included the moon cities and the Australasian-Pacific Region. While prior to the Nuclear War, the neutral states had remained separate with their own sovereignty and leadership, in the rebuilding of their worlds and the continued expansion up into space, the signatories of the Neutral Territory Treaty had worked together to create the neutral ports as part of the keystones to the tentative alliance between the colonies and the various regions on Earth.

His name hadn't been “Seiichi Yukimura” when he'd lived in the Kingdom of Scandinavia, but his real identity was of no real importance any more.

Yukimura didn't let himself think too long or too often of what had happened in his past, with the ideal that dwelling too long on the past blocked his sight into the future. But on nights when the joints between his metal prosthetics and his real body ached, or his phantom limbs with nerves that still itched appeared again, Yukimura couldn't help but remember the long months of terror and being hunted down like an animal that culminated into a long night of suffering.

His father had been a high ranking official in the government of the Kingdom of Scandinavia while he mother made it her life travelling around to the impoverished settlements throughout the Kingdom and the northern Western European alliance and offering what she could. She had been kind and people had returned that kindness in turn. But kindness all too easily gave way to hatred and desperation as war kindled again and spread through the Western European Alliance. And as the war of attrition continued to drag out from months into years with no end in sight, that desperation and hatred only grew.

Yukimura had spoken twice of the incident that left him crippled for life and most likely never would again: once to Sanada, very briefly and the other man hadn't asked for more details, and the second time to Yanagi who had asked for as much as possible until Yukimura refused to say any more. But he could still recall with perfect clarity the feeling of helplessness, of his mother's screams, of _his_ screams as he was used as a knife sharpener and eventually his limbs hacked off one by one with slow, painful methodicalness as his father refused each time to surrender and allow the Western European Alliance access to its capital city, its supplies, its _military_ and ultimately its support for their side of the war.

The lives and freedoms of a Kingdom versus the life and freedom of a young boy.

Yukimura couldn't be bitter towards his father, he would have done the same.

His limbs had been burned in a stinking pyre that his mother's hogtied, struggling body was thrown on and Yukimura was left to watch and to die, the scent of burning flesh and the sound of his mother's cries filling his senses.

It had been the lingering kindness in the world that had saved him. He had been brought into a small Scandinavian settlement to heal and recover, the people hiding him even as the Western European Alliance military swept through, even as Yukimura continued to use more than his fair share of their already strained and stretched resources.

 _He_ had been chosen because of his father's ranking in the Scandinavian government and sacrificed because of his lack of worth to the people. He had no doubts that if it had been someone who was worth something to the government or to the monarch himself, they would have at least tried to negotiate instead of blocking their ears to his begging. 

The people who looked after him and who deserved so much more than what they received, would not and probably would never because of into the position they'd been born. And it was there, lying in the darkened room for the long years of the war that the hatred and anger festered and his desire to do something, to do _anything_ to change it, to _fix it_ grew.

–

Yukimura still had his identification number that marked him as a citizen of the Kingdom of Scandinavia and as the war came to an end, he returned home. His father had died of grief during the war, but Yukimura appealed to the government for early access to his family accounts and for support and payment for his suffering and sacrifice that had stained the walls of the capital that had never fallen.

He'd moved to the colonies as soon as possible. The Kingdom of Scandinavia had paid for his first prosthetics when he refused the cloned replacement limbs from someone else. If they weren't his own, he would not have a part of someone else on him unless there were no other options. There had been research at one point, of building any body part from just a minuscule amount of DNA, growing it into maturity in a lab, but that research had been blacklisted and condemned, leaving painful replacement fittings and new prosthetics every year as his only acceptable option. It wouldn't be so bad, the doctors told him, when he was fully grown and they had to stop replacing them for his growth, but it was a lie. Even when he reached maturity, the painful replacements continued, with each model he tried claiming to last, but never following through.

It had been so surreal, his years in the colonies. He had his identity changed for his own protection and he attended school; his simple lifestyle funded by the Kingdom of Scandinavia and his own family's money. It would have been so easy to fall into the trap of becoming a simple citizen, who graduated school, found a job, most likely in government and continue serving the Council for the rest of his life. He was smart and he was placed in a good school, he could have overcome the restrictions of social hierarchy and worked his way up in the world.

But Yukimura's memories didn't fade and while he hid them beneath an easy smile and kindness that he brought about through his memories of his mother, his scarred, bitter soul wasn't so easily healed. It was in the colonies that his resolve hardened and moved beyond childish hatred and desire for revenge and justice, into the desire for revolution for the betterment of the world as a whole.

He met Yanagi in the colonies, his first real friend outside of those he had left behind and lost on Earth, when he was twenty. Yanagi had caught him hacking into the Colony Intelligence Security Network's database as he tried to do the same thing and the two of them had agreed to meet. They laughed about it now, about how Yanagi had berated him for sloppy technique and then showed him how to do it properly.

In hindsight, asking Yanagi to help him reach his ideal, peaceful, united world was one of the great moments of inspiration. Yanagi didn't share the same personal dislike for the current world, having grown up in relative comfort in the upper ranked colonies, but he was able to see the problems with the world from his careful neutrality and disinterest in anything beyond the unbiased _facts_. He agreed to offer advice and help plan behind the scenes – a gamemaker and a spectator moreso than a participant, but at that time, Yukimura would have accepted anyone that believed in his future becoming a reality. While it was Yukimura's ideals that drove their team, it was ultimately Yanagi's detailed planning that was going to get them there.

It had been Yanagi that had suggested he visit the small mechanic shop that had recently opened in one of the central trading ports. The name, he said, was amusing but they specialised in more obscure jobs and could perhaps help maintain and possibly improve Yukimura's current set of prosthetics instead of having them completely replaced.

Yukimura had originally been reluctant. The ports were strictly controlled by the Traders and Merchants Guild that had changed over the years from a gathering of the most influential business people across the ports, to a restrictive powerhouse. But the port was relatively new and the shop a fair distance from the central trading district where the true power of the Guild lay.

And _Sanada Dojo_ certainly had its own charm in the strangeness of the name and the antiquity of the design that didn't fit the actual purpose of the shop at all.

Back then, it had only been Sanada who worked at the shop and thus it was Sanada in front of whom Yukimura had stripped to show the extent of his limbs. Sanada had been silent and his jaw had tightened as first Yukimura removed his shirt and he had seen the clenching of fists as his pants dropped. But he hadn't flinched or stepped back in disgust like so many people did when they saw the extent of his body. He hadn't asked what happened, instead just wordlessly inspecting them, turning the limbs over in his hands in quiet contemplation before he made a few adjustments, talking to Yukimura finally, quietly, just to ensure that they weren't hurting him as he fitted them on again.

He'd returned a few months later after an accident that left his left forearm cracked and useless, to find a curly haired boy now living with Sanada. He poked his head around the door to watch as Yukimura's limbs were repaired and Yukimura smiled at him from his seat. Sanada told the kid to go to bed – an order very quickly followed, he noticed with much amusement – before telling Yukimura that he'd found Akaya outside his house and brought him in.

That was the time that Yukimura had boldly seduced Sanada and they'd spent the night in the workroom, not wishing to disturb Akaya sleeping upstairs. Yukimura had run his fingers down the length of Sanada's body numerous times, watching their path and seeing Sanada's muscles clench and relax above him and just regretted that he wasn't able to feel it as well.

His stay had turned from days into weeks, until Yanagi came over to see what was happening. It was then that he'd learned about Sanada's past and they'd offered Sanada a chance to change the world with them.

There had been an awkward moment when Sanada said he'd need to talk to someone in the colonies about their proposal before agreeing to it. They'd been in the quiet workroom while Sanada had called, having had to find the communication channel number first, written on a scrap of paper that was buried inside an old _goke_ underneath the pile of black go stones. The communicator had rung just twice before the channel opened and the face of one Keigo Atobe appeared on the screen. At the time, Atobe had been a promising young addition to the Council and it was only with Sanada's stern words and assurance that it was fine, that Yukimura managed to stop himself from marching forward and turning off the communicator before Sanada could send them to prison.

But Sanada had spoken quietly and Atobe had listened without interruption, something that was at odds with the councilman's attitude in all the media reports and interviews Yukimura had seen. They had a chance to do what was right and build a sort of world that Kunimitsu would have wanted, he said, and Atobe had paused for just a moment before agreeing to help.

The next visit, there'd been a white haired teenager who had taken up residence too. Yukimura laughed and asked Sanada how many more people he was planning on fitting in his house and Sanada had ignored him, asking instead if he had any problems with Niou sitting in and watching what he was doing. He was Sanada's new and first student, one that made unnervingly intelligent insights about the build and repairs of the limbs, sprouting off possible improvements that Sanada nodded along with.

Despite their numbers having grown and the promise of open funding from Atobe towards whatever project, they stalled for years. It was only when Yanagi introduced Jackal to their group that Yukimura began to aim to bring down the walls of the protected Earth cities.

Jackal was an explosives expert that worked in defence, testing the never ending series of weapons as they were produced. Marui was his house mate and old school friend who had unconventional, if rather _brilliant_ ideas about technology modifications. At the time he'd been avoiding a contract with the military, instead freelancing with a shuttle manufacturing company. However even with those two working together, they failed to break through the protective barriers.

But when Niou offhandedly offered to make Yukimura better artificial legs and _succeeded_ in a way that went beyond the realms of current technology, he pushed Niou to working with the other two under Yanagi's supervision. And with that first successful attack that brought the divide between the Earth's major cities and the outside settlements crashing down, regardless of what nation they were part of, Yanagi's plans and Yukimura's dreams of a brighter future looked like they may actually become a reality.

It would take more than just one successful attack to remove the society restraints and long-bred acceptance of people's places in the world. But it was a start. The over-privileged in the world would either have to agree to their terms or be removed, so their complaints couldn't be heard to block the dawn of a new era. Governments that sought to cling to the old way of life and their positions of absolute power and control would have to fall or be replaced with new leaders that understood the need and benefits of social equality.

The Earth was rebuilding after the fall of the major cities, albeit slowly but Atobe had people down there encouraging the settlement inhabitants to push forward and claim their rightful places. Hopefully when the rest of the cities fell, or even dropped their protections themselves, the change wouldn't need to be encouraged.

And then there would be the final step: the stopping of the pointless conflict between the various nations that had plagued them throughout history as they sought power over one another, by forcing them into an alliance. It had happened again and again throughout history: enemies coming together in the name of facing down a common threat.

Yukimura didn't see why it couldn't happen one last time.


	6. Intermission: Akaya

_YNP9-064-0285_ was the most important thing in the world to Akaya.

It was his identification number that he'd been assigned when Sanada had taken him to the Traders and Merchants Guild to be registered. They'd had to come up with the last name 'Kirihara' and estimate his date of birth, but it didn't matter. He still knew his original last name, but he had shed it like an old skin and fully embraced the name Yanagi and Sanada had chosen, keeping the memories of it locked up. He didn't think he'd told anyone either, originally too scared that he was going to be sent back, a fear that had eventually gone away as he realised that his old identity didn't matter any more.

Having that identification number proved that he belonged on the ports and lived with Sanada. Akaya laughed now as he recalled Sanada painstakingly writing the number on his forearm every morning after his bath until he could recite it off by heart back to him, but he didn't think he could ever forget it.

He had a few memories of his time before Sanada Dojo that he'd shared with only Jackal, once. He'd grown up in a small town, just outside the protected walls of a city in what Jackal and he had guessed to be the Americas. His mother, he remembered had been wild haired and quick to both anger and laughter. His father, he only had very vague impressions of and he didn't dwell on the blurry memories, nor try to add detail to the face. He'd been with his parents for almost ten years and at Sanada Dojo for ten years, and it wasn't hard to decide which of the two times he preferred.

He'd been abandoned at the ports and his last memory of his mother was the sight of her back, her skirt around her thighs and the sound of her heels on the footpath as she'd walked away. He'd been lucky then, falling into a group of kids around his age. He'd gotten into a fight with Hiyoshi when they'd first run into each other and he still had a scar on his shoulder from where Hiyoshi had bitten him and the memories of rolling on the ground and pulling at the boy's hair were very clear. But they stuck together, a group of four homeless kids who somehow fell into an easy relationship of depending on each other for survival and that small measure of happiness that they got when they were together.

Finding Sanada Dojo was one of the turning moments of his life. He would admit enough now that he'd only chosen to rummage through Sanada's bins because he sorted them meticulously and it was easy to find food in there without having to pull out other garbage first. He'd cringed away from Sanada when he'd been found out, the man almost twice his size, only to be pulled inside by the back of his shirt and given a plate of hot food. Akaya had pushed the food around on his plate until Sanada had turned his back, which was when Akaya had run away with the plate, bringing it to his group's small, cramped space that was nevertheless theirs.

The plate of food had been at the side door every night after that and Akaya was always careful to replace it with the plate from the previous night. The side door remained open for him to return to every night and it had taken him a long time of stolen dinners to finally realise that Sanada was just waiting for him to come in and close it behind him for himself.

Kaidou had been the angriest when Akaya had left them to join Sanada, refusing to speak to him for weeks, even when Akaya had ventured out to visit them. Zaizen had sneaked into Sanada's garden on a regular basis to give him updates, one of which was that Kaidou cried all the time about him leaving. They still teased him about it now when they met up and Kaidou hissed at them.

The other three were doing well and he had slight suspicions that someone, most likely Yukimura or Sanada had pulled some strings to get them off the street. But he'd never asked them outright and neither of them had offered any hint of the sort.

He'd met people through Sanada Dojo that had added themselves to his concept of his 'family' as they came along. Yanagi sent him new video games to play before they were out for sale, but also insisted on giving him endless disks of science and maths questions every time to complete beforehand. He'd complained, but Yanagi had just smiled at him and somehow that had left no space for argument.

Jackal had taught him how to pilot a space craft and shoot a gun, despite Sanada's objections. He would learn it _later_ , Sanada had said, but Jackal took him to a shooting range anyway and showed him. He'd gone to the colonies to visit Jackal and Marui once, been coddled by Jackal's wife and treated like a brother by his son. It was something he'd soaked up like a sponge and he'd been sorry to leave.

Marui used to have the reputation as the sweets man and the two of them came up with elaborate methods for Marui to pass him sweets that Sanada forbade in the house. Now though, Marui just gave them to him in the open, always with a wink at Sanada and they laughed together about it.

Yukimura was an odd person that Akaya loved nonetheless. He remembered his first sight of Yukimura, sitting on Sanada's workbench, topless and with the shining metal of his limbs at the time showing, but he'd still smiled at Akaya. Yukimura smiled and laughed and sometimes spoiled him with presents, but there was always an unnerving underlying feeling that Yukimura wasn't quite showing his true self. But Akaya never mentioned it, preferring instead of focus on the surface expressions.

He had mixed feelings towards Atobe and was glad that he only saw the man once a year. Sanada had told him Atobe was an old friend and when he'd asked Yanagi about him, he had few doubts that Atobe was much more involved with Sanada Dojo than he would have thought initially. Atobe always treated him with something bordering on disdain and he'd heard him questioning Sanada in the past about why he'd taken Akaya in. Regardless, Atobe's birthday and Winterval presents to Akaya were always generous almost to the point of ridiculous and Akaya supposed that maybe once a year visits were tolerable.

Niou was... Niou, someone who frustrated him and teased him relentlessly. He'd been sour, he remembered, when Sanada had introduced Niou to him and said he was staying in the house as well. But they'd settled into a relationship similar to what Akaya secretly imagined was probably what brothers were like. He would never admit to it out loud because Niou would undoubtedly tease him more, but it did stop him from complaining too loudly when Niou's jokes sometimes went too far.

And now there was Yagyuu, someone that he joked with Marui and Jackal was Niou's 'stray', much like Atobe called him and Niou, Sanada's. He had watched the growing relationship between Niou and Yagyuu from the first day that he'd realised someone was new in their house and was constnatly returning. He'd known very early on that Yukimura and Sanada were in a relationship. Not having Sanada sleep in his normal room – which back then, Akaya had shared with him – when Yukimura was around, and going downstairs to find the two of them nevertheless looking like they'd slept that night, was a clue that somehow in his youth he'd pieced together. Now though, he winced at the memory as he realised exactly the _why_ of their actions.

Marui gave him regular updates on his own love life that played out like a drama every other month, and Jackal's wife always now sent him a birthday card and a small present every year, separate to Jackal's own. Zaizen had been through his fair share of relationships and complained to Akaya about them as they'd happened. Hiyoshi and Kaidou were both fairly silent about the issue when Akaya raised it, but the awkward expression on Kaidou's face was enough of an explanation for them really.

But the slowly forming relationship between Niou and Yagyuu was something completely new to him and Akaya watched it with a great deal of curiousity.

It had been hard at first, with Niou always keeping the door to his workroom shut and shooing out Akaya whenever he poked his head in. But one day when Sanada had been watching him press his ear to the wall, he'd waved Akaya to go over to the side window to Niou's room before turning away to enjoy his cigarette as though he couldn't see Akaya climbing through the bushes.

He wasn't ashamed to admit that watching them had almost become his new job, nor was he ashamed to admit that he'd noticed a distinct drop in his workload since Sanada had spotted him. He was oddly enthralled by the quiet understanding the two of them seemed to have with each other and seeing how comfortable they were together. It seemed much more intimate than the physical displays of affection Marui told him about in his exploits, or that he saw in the romantic dramas he sometimes watched with Jackal.

Akaya decided very early on that he _liked_ Yagyuu. He brought with him to the shop an odd sense of _properness_ that the others lacked in some degree or another and he managed to rein in Niou's loud, impulsive tendencies when he was around. It also helped that Yagyuu had once reluctantly allowed him to sit in his wheelchair and wheel it up and down the hallway as fast as he could. Yagyuu also helped him occasionally with the increasingly difficult physics questions from Yanagi.

Somehow, Sanada Dojo seemed to have found whatever it hadn't known it was missing when Niou had invited Yagyuu in for the first time and Akaya was very aware of the new sense of completeness.

His work was becoming increasingly branched out as Yanagi sent him projects to work on from his own line of research on the colonies, inexorably taking him under his wing. Akaya knew Sanada was a little annoyed at having his apprentice taken out from under his thumb, but he was always willing to help when Akaya needed it. Akaya knew he wasn't some strange prodigy like Niou and he didn't have the years of experience like Sanada. But he was smart and Yanagi seemed pleased with his progress.

He had gleaned small parts of Yukimura's plans by listening through the wall that connected his workroom with Sanada's when they thought he was working. Akaya didn't ask for further details and he doubted that the three would tell him anyway if he did ask. But what he did know was enough to send a rush of anticipation down his spine, followed in equal measure by dread, knowing that when it started for real, the current state of his world that he liked so much was going to change.

One day he suspected he was going to move to the colonies to work with Yanagi, what with Niou taking over the bulk of the work at the shop, even with his much complaining about the fact. But until then, Akaya focused on his work and getting better and enjoying his family and his world as it was.

Akaya loved the current discordant harmony of the current Sanada Dojo and part of him didn't want it to change even though he knew it had to eventually - was it selfish to think that way?


	7. Fighter

Hiroshi Yagyuu, the first person he had properly met by himself instead of being introduced to him through Sanada Dojo.

Hiroshi Yagyuu, Niou's _friend_.

He was still friends with the others, he knew that. Marui was a little older than him but they got along well enough and had ever since they'd been introduced. Jackal liked him well enough, though he had a feeling that his energy tired a man already busy with Akaya and his own child. Yukimura was unnerving in his intensity but they remained friends despite Niou sensing there was something much darker beneath the surface that Yukimura wasn't telling him. Yanagi seemed eternally baffled by Niou, although he took it all in good humour and was constantly looking to understand him more. Akaya was... Akaya, someone he loved to tease and play jokes on but he found himself caring about the kid probably more than anyone else in Sanada Dojo.

Until Yagyuu.

Niou wondered vaguely sometimes if this was how Sanada felt about people like Yukimura or Yanagi. Or perhaps even Atobe, although Sanada would be loathe to admit it. People that just somehow fit into his life as naturally as breathing and eventually became the one thing that kept him breathing before he even stopped to notice.

He didn't know. 

He didn't want to know.

There was the guilt constantly pressing in on him, becoming more intense with each moment that Yagyuu became all the more important to him. He knew, logically that he should have pushed Yagyuu away the moment that he'd realised, the moment that he'd realised that Yagyuu was dangerous to him, to their _group_. But he hadn't and he still couldn't bring himself to. And now he realised, with a sinking in his stomach, that it was probably far too late to do it.

He was scared of not being able to breathe without Yagyuu any more.

\--

It was extremely bad luck that they arrived back when Atobe and Sanada were still at the shop. If they'd just taken a little longer walking back, Sanada probably would have just left him a message and the whole mess could have been avoided. It was all Atobe's fault, Niou told himself. He could have just as easily have sent a car to pick Sanada up, or even organised for Sanada to go to the colonies by himself. After all, there was no real reason for him to come here, to the lower part of the ports, or even to the ports in general. Especially given his well-publicised attitude and bais towards the lower-class areas of the colonies. Stupid Atobe.

But it wasn't just Atobe's presence that was annoying Niou – although the man did annoy him on a personal level with his puffy airs and his disapproving looks down his nose whenever they were in the same room – it was the confirming of what had probably just been previously vague suspicions in Yagyuu's mind that things were more than they appeared at Sanada Dojo.

What was worse perhaps though, was being able to see the tension in Yagyuu's body as he considered the current situation and the silence between them in their workroom. Niou stared at a spot just past Yagyuu's ear at the wall, but he could see enough of his face and knew him well enough by now to sense the suspicion and almost guess the question before Yagyuu asked it.

“Masaharu, can you please explain to me _truthfully_ what this place is exactly?”

To anyone else, in any other situation it would have been so easy to lie. How many times had he told someone that Sanada Dojo was actually a money laundering front or actually a secret prostitue house of which he was an unwilling participant. But he had, to some extent always tried to be honest with Yagyuu and certainly now there was a sharpness to his vice that seemed to demand a truthful answer from him. The lingering guilt that was always at least a little with him and now settled heavily in his chest wasn't helping, reminding him that he _owed_ Yagyuu a lot and with each lie he told, the chance of being able to repay it – if that was even possible – slowly slid further and further away.

“I thought you knew it already. We're just a mechanic shop.” Niou looked away from Yagyuu, but he heard the irritation in his voice regardless.

_”Masaharu.”_

Niou huffed and tugged on the end of his hair. “What do you want me to say, Hiroshi? That we're some sort of criminal organisation with some dumb shop front and the dumb name Sanada came up with an that idiot Atobe's our financial backer?”

Yagyuu sighed and suddenly sounded very tired as he spoke again. “I just want you to tell me the truth.”

It was almost funny, in a sick way, that the truth sounded even more ridiculous than the lie and Yagyuu certainly seemed to think so as well. Still, telling the truth did nothing to quieten the guilt in his stomach and Niou closed the gap between them.

It was so easy now, to just kneel down and lean in to press his face against Yagyuu's chest, in a sense of closeness that Niou couldn't copy with any of his other friends, if they'd even accept it in the first place. He felt Yagyuu tense up and he felt the sharp intake of breath as he slid his arms around Yagyuu's waist. Niou held onto a hand full of Yagyuu's neatly tucked shirt but there was never any movement to push him away and after a long silence and stillness, Niou felt Yagyuu relax, almost imperceptibly and an almost tentative, awkward hand settled on his back.

Niou finally spoke, his voice muffled and he made no attempt to move his face to make Yagyuu hear him more clearly. “I am telling you the truth, Hiroshi. You're just choosing not to believe it.”

There was another pause and for a long moment, Niou was worried that Yagyuu was going to get annoyed again, but there was a reluctant laugh and Yagyuu very slowly patted his back. “I do expect a proper answer one day.”

“It's a very long story and not very interesting.”

He heard the huffing sound of his breath as Yagyuu laughed quietly. “I'm a very good listener, I wouldn't worry.”

Niou laughed as well and shrugged. “I'll tell you when Sanada's gotten you to sign a life long binding contract to the shop, then. Okay?”

And just like that, any hint of the previous tension between them disappeared and was replaced with laughter and the strange comfortable companionship that Niou had become so unnervingly used to over the past few weeks. Yagyuu's hand was warm and heavy through his shirt and Niou was suddenly very aware of his own breathing and the soft rise and fall of Yagyuu's chest beneath his cheek.

He vaguely heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway and paid it no mind – probably just Akaya going to the bathroom or something. But then the door to his workroom opened and Akaya poked his head in. “Hey Masaharu, are you making dinner or-- what are you two doing?”

Niou pulled away from Yagyuu and fell backwards, landing hard and he felt his cheeks start to heat up. Yagyuu turned his whole chair to look at Akaya and when Niou looked up, he couldn't see the door any more.

“We were just discussing it, actually,” Yagyuu said and Niou could hear the easy smile in his voice and perhaps it bothered him a little that Yagyuu seemed so unruffled at being interrupted like that? “I've agreed to stay for dinner tonight and Masaharu was just trying to get me to say what I wanted to eat.”

On second thought, perhaps it was good that he was so collected with how easily he was able to deflect the situation and give Niou a chance to pull himself together and stand up. He watched as Akaya walked out the door still looking a little confused and he laughed. “So, if you're staying for dinner, does that mean you're going to sleep here tonight too?”

Yagyuu raised his eyebrows and gestured pointedly down with his hand. “I would be happy to, however the bedrooms are upstairs. And as fond as I am of this room...” he trailed off and looked around them, “I'm not sleeping in here.”

Niou followed his gaze around the room, spying a pile of boxes that was being held up by a wish in the corner and another pile that had fallen over already. “Yeah, okay. Come on then, Akaya might actually blow up the kitchen if I don't stop him.”

It was an enjoyable dinner with the three of them, Yagyuu replacing Sanada's stern expression and few words with his dry humour and continually polite refusals of second helpings over and over again and Niou offered them to him. Yagyuu also insisted on at least staying in the kitchen as Akaya cleaned up and Niou sighed and rested his elbows on the table as he stayed as well. Akaya seemed fairly happy with the situation as he chattered away to them and Niou wondered whether Sanada actually spoke to him when he supervised or if he just sat and stared in silence.

It was late by the time Niou walked Yagyuu to the main street and got him a car to the hotel. He'd only let Yagyuu leave the shop after wrangling a promise from him to return the next day and he had a spring in his step as he made his way back. Akaya alternated between keeping his door open and closed and Niou tapped on the door frame. Akaya was bent over a spread of paper on his desk that seemed to be the plans for the mains power to the house. Niou's gaze lingered on it for a moment before he spoke.

“Hey, I'll do the cleaning up this week if you help me tonight,” Niou said and he grinned as Akaya looked up at him.

It was too easy.

He'd been sitting on plans for a wheelchair attachment to their stairs for weeks, one of the things that he'd scribbled down just a few days after meeting Yagyuu. He'd never had to consider the changes houses might have to go through to accommodate a wheelchair and he was sure there had been a page with a few ideas on how to make their bathroom more accessible, as well as very rough sketches for a new set of mechanical legs – that last page he knew he'd stashed at the bottom of his desk so Yagyuu didn't find them accidentally and get the wrong idea.

Niou hesitated for just a moment as he was about to drill the first hole into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Sanada hadn't exactly ever given him approval to modify part of the house, but well, it was easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, right?

It was easier with Akaya working with him, the boy more than happy to head out the back in the middle of the night to cut sheets of metal down to side for him and to weld parts together. Niou meanwhile, cobbled the electronics and elevator mechanism together from spare parts that he'd been slowly squirreling away for some project he couldn't even recall any more. It wasn't the prettiest of things when he was done with lots of rough edges and a few wires poking out and he suspected Sanada would take more of an issue with the do-it-yourself-at-home appearance than the actual modification to his house. But it worked and that was the most important thing, and Akaya clapped his hands together as the tester desk chair made its slow but steady way up the stairs.

He didn't crawl into bed until he could see sunlight starting to filter through his closed curtains. And as he lay with his eyes closed, he realised that Yagyuu probably didn't expect him to go anywhere near this level of effort just for him to stay over and probably couldn't begin to comprehend why. And in many ways, Niou couldn't really comprehend why he did either. It just felt... _right_ , he supposed and Sanada was always going on about dong what you thought was right.

A horrible part of him said that it was him still constantly trying to atone for his own guilt and sins towards Yagyuu, or perhaps some misguided hope that Yagyuu was going to be here for a lot longer than he said but Niou squashed that voice forcibly. He curled up on his side and covered his head with his pillow and despite the sounds of Akaya banging loudly on something downstairs, he drifted off to sleep almost immediately.

–

He woke up rather disoriented and pushed the pillow off his face, rolling onto his back. The curtains were still closed but it seemed to be almost midday from how brightly the sun was trying to come in. His eyes were hurting, from lack of sleep or too much sleep he couldn't tell and Niou rubbed them, barely noticing the person sitting just a few feet away, their attentions focused on the screen of their handheld communicator. Niou froze mid-yawn as he heard the strange noise as they moved backwards and he looked at them, his hand dropping.

“Oh shit, what are you doing here?”

Yagyuu looked at him with a raised eyebrow and shook his head. “I was made to promise last night to come back and I've just been listening to Akaya tell me how the two of you spent all night building that... elevator, and you ask what I'm doing here?”

Niou yawned again and pushed up his shirt to scratch at his stomach. “Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good to know it works. I didn't want to try carry you up on my back.”

Yagyuu thankfully laughed at the comment and watched quietly as Niou got up and went to rummage through the cupboard to find some pants. “Do you always sleep like that? How do you not suffocate?”

He looked over his shoulder and jumped, pulling his pants up over his hips. “I actually breathe through some holes on my chest. Do you want to see?” Niou went to push up his shirt again, and Yagyuu raised his hand to stop him.

“I'll pass, thank you.”

Niou laughed and buttoned up his pants, running a hand through his hair. He still needed to clean his teeth and his face, but he could do that when they got downstairs. “So, have you had breakfast? Did you want to go out and get some?”

Niou liked to think that he was a person that didn't get surprised very often, although he was sure that Yanagi had some ridiculous statistic that contradicted that. But it was still, surprisingly easy to get Yagyuu to agree tos tay and keep him company in the shop until Sanada returned. All it had really taken was an agreement for them to stop by Yagyuu's hotel so he could get some things – he had point blank refused Niou's offer to share clothes and there had been a rather hilarious cringe at the offer of sharing a toothbrush.

Somehow he had a feeling that Yagyuu had somehow just resigned himself to the fact that Niou was going to ask him to stay anyway after making the stair elevator. Well, it made it easier either way.

Yagyuu's hotel was close to the central trading district and though it reached up for storeys, Yagyuu's room was on the ground floor. He had a fairly good feeling that it was one of the most expensive hotels in the ports and probably a place Atobe would deem worthy of staying if he stopped over. Since Atobe never stayed over at Sanada Dojo – thank god.

He whistled as Yagyuu opened the door to his hotel room and moved straight away to the bed to flop down on it. It was a comfortable bed, newly made as well by the look of it and Niou took a great amount of joy in messing it up. “Man, this is a nice room. It must be costing you a fortune.” Especially given that Yagyuu had been in the ports for a month and was possibly looking at weeks more before he left.

Yagyuu glanced at him from where he was putting together a bag. “I imagine so. It is certainly... much quieter than being at your place all the time though.

Niou laughed and rolled onto his stomach to watch Yagyuu. It was rather amusing to watch him carefully fold all his clothes and count out underwear. Niou counted along with him – four. “Don't deny it, Hiroshi. You'd be very lonely if I hadn't accosted you for tea and you know it. You'd probably be still stuck at that gross coffee place or sitting here watching old movies no one else care about or something.”

A third shirt was folded and put away into the bag and Yagyuu made his way over to the bathroom. “I actually planned on buying books while I was here.” _Boring_. “And I brought along quite a few to read as well. Needless to say, I've barely read any.” Yagyuu didn't sound annoyed and Niou grinned.

He pressed his face into the soft sheets on the bed and inhaled the clean, just washed smell with some strange disappointment. There was a lull in the conversation as Yagyuu moved around the bathroom and Niou listened to the sounds of items being moved. Finally, he spoke, turning his face to the side so Yagyuu could hear him. “You wouldn't have somehow made your way to the colonies?”

“Perhaps. I would have had to stay with my parents though, my place isn't really designed with... accesibility in mind.”

“That bad, huh?”

Yagyuu laughed. “I will just say that there are much more desirable options available,” he said and Niou's ears perked at the rattling sound of what was probably some pills in a bottle.

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “Like staying here with me?”

There was a long silence and as it drew it, Niou bit his tongue to stop himself from taking back his words. Yagyuu rolled out of the bathroom eventually though and gave him a long look. “I'm not going to answer a question that's just you blatantly fishing for compliments, Masaharu,” he said flatly. He put his toiletries away and closed his bag.

“You know we wouldn't mind you moving in with us forever, right? A doctor would be really handy to have around.”

Yagyuu looked extremely uncomfortable now and Niou saw the shifting of his expression to something almost pained and suddenly Niou realised that he didn't want to hear Yagyuu politely turn him down again. “Nevermind, Hiroshi,” he said, cutting across Yagyuu as he went to speak. “I'm just joking.” Niou laughed it off and there was an odd feeling in his stomach as Yagyuu looked almost relieved. Nevertheless, he rolled off the bed and fixed up his shirt, running a hand through his hair to fix it up. “You ready to go?”

“Yes. Thank you for waiting.” He paused and his gaze lingered on the bed and Niou turned to look at it too. It looked suitably rumpled. “Are you going to fix up the bed?”

Niou laughed and moved to open the door for Yagyuu. “Nope. Let's go.”

–

Yagyuu fit into Akaya and Niou's night and morning routines with the same ease that he'd made himself a part of Niou's daily life as well. Akaya slept in Sanada's room as usual and Niou set up the one spare futon in his room, pushing his piles of _stuff_ that normally inhabited the floor space into one corner and after a long moment of consideration, he covered it with a bedsheet.

There were new things that he learned about Yagyuu though, in the few days that he stayed over. Yagyuu liked to sit and keep Niou company as he went through his end of the deal with Akaya and cleaned up after dinner. And even though Akaya was more than able to go off and go back to his own thing, he liked to hang around too and ask Yagyuu ridiculous questions. He went to bed when it was still dark outside and woke up just after sunrise and there were a few hours on either side that one of them was awake by themselves. He was a back sleeper and while he'd questioned it initially, he hadn't complained when Niou crawled into the futon with him and woke him up by burrowing his face into Yagyuu's side. But he did make a point of elbowing Niou when he woke up in the morning, and Niou was convinced that he did it on purpose.

Yagyuu took much longer in the bathroom than anyone else in the house – whether visitor or someone that lived there. But he always emerged completely dressed and looking ready for the day, rather than Akaya who sometimes was prone to having to do naked runs to his room because he forgot his underwear, or Niou who did that sometimes anyway just because he could.

It was in the afternoon of the third day that Yukimura arrived. Niou heard the jingle of the bell on the door and poked his head out of their workroom, pausing as he saw the familiar figure closing the door behind him.

“Hey, Seiichi. Sanada's not here, I thought you knew this.”

Yukimura laughed and made his way towards him. “I know. Genichirou's returning tomorrow, he just sent me ahead to make sure you hadn't destroyed the house. I wanted to talk to you anyway, so I agreed.” He stopped at the door and Niou saw the flicker of surprise on his face and something else that he couldn't quite place that changed into an easy smile as Yukimura spotted Yagyuu still sitting at the workbench.

“Oh, Masaharu's friend. I... didn't realise that you were still here.”

To his credit, Yagyuu smiled back and nodded in acquiescence. But Niou noticed an oddness to the smile and it took him a moment to realise that it didn't quite reach his eyes.

“We were just going to get stuff for dinner now,” Niou blurted out and almost without thinking about it, he sidled across to block Yagyuu from Yukimura's line of sight. “If you don't request something gross, I can make it.” He realised belatedly the parallels between what he did now and what Yagyuu had done earlier with Akaya but he didn't think too much on it.

Yukimura gave him a careful look of consideration, though whether it was over his actions or whether Yukimura was actually thinking about what he wanted for dinner, Niou couldn't be sure. “Something vegetarian, I think. And light.”

He snorted and dismissed Yukimura's suggestion with a wave of his hand. “Something meaty and with a complete lack of other colour. Got it.” Niou grinned and Yukimura gave him a most displeased look. “Come on, Hiroshi. Let's go shopping.”

The two of them stood aside as Yagyuu was first out the door, nodding to Yukimura as he passed. Niou was about to follow when Yukimura lightly touched his elbow to stop him.

“I'll talk to you tonight, Masaharu.” Despite his smile and the light tone of his voice, there as no room for discussion. “Unless Yagyuu has convinced you to suddenly start going to sleep early?”

“Not a chance.” Niou moved his elbow to pull away but Yukimura's mechanical grip was firm and Niou paused as he heard a click followed by the slide of metal against metal. He glanced down at the jacket covering Yukimura's forearm and then looked back up at Yukimura, suddenly much more wary.

“While you're out, please remember that you're part of a team. I don't plan on letting what we've done so far go to waste because you've managed to get an unnecessary puppy-crush.” Yukimura smile was frightening, Niou decided and Yukimura finally let go, bringing a hand to his forearm to click it back into place. “Please buy at least a few vegetables while you're out. Have a nice time.”

Niou was all too happy to leave and he caught up with Yagyuu outside, falling into step with him as they started towards the main street. Yagyuu glanced at him and paused, Niou stopping a few steps ahead. 

“Are you alright?”

He turned back and frowned. “Yeah, I'm fine. Why?”

“No reason. I just thought I should make sure.”

–

Time did not cooperate with him that day, moving faster than he could ever remember as he continued to dread returning to the house and having his talk with Yukimura. Somehow between getting food for dinner, taking Yagyuu to a small out of the way second hand bookshop that Sanada liked and being awkwardly treated to afternoon tea, the day disappeared before he realised.

He knew what Yukimura wanted to talk about: designs for weapons to work around the current and in planning defences for the colonies that Atobe had sent through weeks beforehand and Niou had been ignoring. It had lost the thrill of the challenge and even now, Niou's stomach churned as he thought that there had ever been any excitement there to begin with.

And undoubtedly, Yagyuu's continued presence in his life was going to be on the table as well. He didn't doubt that Sanada had been sending Yukimura regular updates on his life and Akaya probably had as well. Niou watched as Yagyuu browsed through the narrow aisles of the bookshop piled high with dusty volunes, the shop owner trailing behind him to pull down books as Yagyuu requested, leaving Niou to just sit awkwardly in the shop's only chair with only his continually more depressing thoughts for company.

Dinner was awkward. Yagyuu and Yukimura got along well enough on the surface, with polite talk about the colonies and politics, Yukimura thankfully keeping a very firm grasp on his more anti-council views. Akaya seemed to pick up on the atmosphere and squirmed in his seat as Yukimura finished eating, leaving for his workroom as soon as possible.

Still, listening to their conversation while he cleaned up was not as bad as when Yagyuu wished him a good night and headed off to the bathroom. Niou was struck with the urge to follow him, despite already starting to get his second wind for the night that would see him stay up for a few more hours. So instead, he sighed and followed Yukimura into his workroom and leaned against his desk while Yukimura took his seat.

“You seem to have gotten much closer to Yagyuu while I haven't been here,” Yukimura said, pushing aside some of his topmost pieces of paper on his desk to look at what was underneath. “It's rather nice, you're not so lonely any more.”

Niou was silent and he watched as Yukimura paused over one of his sketches of the components of Sanada's handgun. He'd found it, weeks ago in Sanada's workroom when he'd been looking for a particular sized socket wrench and just out of curiousity, he'd pulled it apart. Sanada had said anything to him about it, so he assumed that he'd put it back together correctly.

“You have to know that this can't continue forever though, right Masaharu?”

He swallowed and continued staring at Yukimura's hands. “I don't see why not.”

“Don't be ridiculous about this now, please. You know where he's from. You know what his family is. Do you really think he'd just accept what we're doing? You're not a fool, Masaharu, please don't act like one.”

There was something almost dangerous in Yukimura's expression that should have probably told Niou that he should just quit and stop now and just accept Yukimura's decision, but he ploughed ahead anyway.

“I don't see why not,” he repeated, clenching his teeth together. “He's not an idiot, Seiichi. He'd _listen_ if you'd just give him a chance and spoke to him. Or just keep him in the dark like Akaya, I don't care.” He gripped the edge of the table and felt his face crumple. “I want him to stay here. … I _need_ him to stay here.”

“And what happens when he finds out the truth?” Yukimura voice was soft and when Niou glanced at him, there was an almost pitying expression on his face. “Do you really think he'll forgive you when he finds out what you did to him?”

“On your orders!” Niou flinched at the sound of his own shouting and he took in a shaky breath, pressing his hand against his face, squeezing his eyes shut. “I only built those stupid bombs because you told me to.” Yukimura had to know the amount of guilt he had, he surely had to know that Niou hated himself for doing it now, hated how much of a success they'd been. “I didn't think... I didn't know...”

There as no reply from Yukimura and Niou could just hear the sound of his own shallow breathing as he tried to calm himself down. And then Niou heard the distinctive sound of wheels on the timber of Sanada's hallway.

“Oh dear... Yagyuu, I thought you had gone to bed already.”

Niou suddenly couldn't breathe and he took in one torturous breath before he lowered his hand to look up at the doorway and saw Yagyuu sitting there. He wasn't sure what was worse, the silence or the expression on Yagyuu's face, entirely focused on him. It was the expression, he numbly decided as he shock slowly changed into a brittle calm, Yagyuu holding himself so tightly, his grip on his wheelchair arms turning his knuckles white.

“Is this true?” Or perhaps it was the distant, forced calm of his voice and Niou took another shaky breath, unable to speak, or think for a moment that dragged into what felt like forever.

“You knew he was there,” he said, rounding on Yukimura. He couldn't bring himself to look at Yagyuu, to face Yagyuu's disgust and he hated it more that Yukimura just shrugged his words off. “You sick bastard. What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?”

There wasn't any time for Yukimura to reply, if he would anyway, as Yagyuu turned around and Niou heard the sound of him making his way down the hallway towards the front door. He gave Yukimura one last look before he stumbled after him, stopping as he saw Yagyuu pulling his jacket out from the front cupboard and start pulling it on over his pyjamas.

“Hiroshi. Hiroshi wait,” Niou said, reaching out to touch Yagyuu's shoulder.

Yagyuu brushed the hand off with the same manner he had when they'd first met, as though the last four weeks hadn't happened and he wheeled around. There was a cold brittleness to his expression and Niou dropped his hand, not sure what to say.

“I knew there was something you were avoiding telling me and that was fine, you would tell me eventually, I figured. But--” he raised his hand to stop Niou from interrupting and Niou fell silent again. “But I never imagined that it would be something like _this_.” Even in his anger, he still spoke with the same consideration to his words as he did normally. And it made Niou feel worse. He almost wanted Yagyuu to lash out, to yell incoherently at him to bring him in line with Niou's own feelings. This was infinitely worse. “I don't know what to say, Masaharu.” They were silent and Yagyuu looked down and away, the first time he'd not tried to look Niou in the eye.

“You knew, didn't you? On the first day.” It was a statement, not a question and there was no accusation in his voice, no anger any more, just tiredness. “Was this some sort of game to you, befriending me like this? Was it some sort of attempt at redeeming yourself?”

“No. No, I didn't...” Niou's voice broke and he bit his lip, crouching down and he shook his head, trying to get words out. He saw, so quickly that he might have imagined it, the twitch of Yagyuu's fingers and Niou squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his face into his knees. “I'm sorry, Hiroshi.”

There was another long silence between them and he could only hear the sounds of his own ragged breathing.

Finally, Yagyuu sighed and he heard him shift backwards. “I'm sorry, Masaharu.” There was the sound of the front door opening and those stupid bells on the door that he kept meaning to take down. “I'll send someone around tomorrow to collect my things. I've had quite enough. Thank you.” There was a horrible finality to the sound of the door closing behind Yagyuu and Niou felt his legs give way beneath him and he curled into a ball in the entrance hall and tried not to cry.

–

Sanada came home the next morning and walked around Niou without pausing, heading for his workroom. He'd calmed down during the night and it had settled into a strange emptiness in his chest as he kept replaying Yagyuu's words, his expressions back through his mind, a thousand and one better replies that he could have, should have said all coming out now.

He could hear the low murmur of Yukimura and Sanada's voices but he didn't care, until he heard the sound of Sanada's heavy footsteps approaching. They stopped right next to his head and he felt the hand on his shoulder.

“Masaharu, get up.”

Niou vaguely registered the very rare use of his first name and he shook his head, curling tighter into his ball. It didn't work of course, when Sanada hauled him up by his arm, holding his up as his legs sagged underneath him. The grip on his arm was tight to the point of almost painful, but Sanada's voice was almost _kind_. “Let's go.”

He stumbled along the hallway behind Sanada and let himself be deposited in a chair that he belated realised was from the kitchen. Sanada must have moved it in there.

“We got intelligence from Renji this morning,” that was Yukimura and Niou spun around to look at him but he was too tired to continue on from last night. He was sitting on the edge of the table, looking at Niou with an unreadable expression. Yukimura hadn't come to see him after Yagyuu had left and Niou thought that maybe Yukimura felt just a little bit guilty? “Yagyuu received permission last night to leave for the colonies this morning. He should be leaving soon.”

Niou closed his eyes and slumped in his chair, pressing a hand to his eyes and taking a deep breath. Sanada crossed his arms and there was silence between them for a long moment before he spoke. “What are you going to do?”

He shook his head and made a pained noise. “I don't know.” His voice came out shakier than he wanted and Niou clenched his hand in his hair. “Nothing. He's gone.”

“Do you want to go after him?”

He heard Yukimura move suddenly. “Genichirou, don't you dare suggest that. We're not going to expose ourselves just because Niou has a broken heart. I forbid it.”

“... What?” Niou's question didn't get answered and he glanced up to see Sanada and Yukimura staring intently at each other, some unspoken conversation happening between them.

“Renji isn't our only means to get Niou entrance to the colonies,” Sanada said and Yukimura laughed.

“You'd go that far for him?” He laughed again and shrugged, crossing his legs and raised a hand in defeat. “I'd almost think you like him more than me, Genichirou.”

“Don't be ridiculous.” And then Sanada turned his attention to Niou, looking at him with a strange burning intensity that Niou had never seen from him before. “Do you want to go after Yagyuu? I can get you access.”

There was only a few moments of consideration and Niou stared wide eyed at Sanada. Sanada who was standing up to Yukimura for _him_ , who was looking to go out of his way to do something for him... … Sanada who... dare he even think it, _cared_ about him. Niou gaped and shook his head and his breathing was coming rapidly again.

“Yes. Yes I want to go.”

Sanada nodded and there was some odd approval in his eyes that Niou hadn't seen directed at him for a very long time. “Fine.” He moved towards one of the side cupboards and Niou twisted around to see what he was doing. He pulled out a small bowl and emerged with a very old piece of paper.

He saw Yukimura shaking his head as Sanada opened up the screen of his communicator, and Niou's heart beat in anticipation as Sanada carefully input the numbers for the communication channel. It rang once and then Atobe's face appeared on the screen.

“Genichirou. What a surprise. I was starting to think you had lost this number, given the number of times you've used it in the past _twenty years_.”

“I need your help.”

Niou knew Sanada had called Atobe before, he'd listened at the door with Akaya a few times, but there had always been a series of other people he had to go through first and he'd had his request to talk to Atobe turned down a few times as well. To get through to him this quickly...

“I need clearance into the Alpha colonies as soon as possible for a one person shuttle.”

Atobe's eyebrows rose and his gaze moved behind Sanada to look at Yukimura and then Niou. “I suppose this isn't you coming back to visit me unexpectedly?” He sounded almost petulant and Niou bit his lip. 

“No, it's for Niou.” 

There was what Niou decided was a displeased silence before Atobe sighed. “Very well, he can use my shuttle you took back to the ports. I'll have clearance for him in... an hour. Do you need someone to meet him?”

Sanada glanced at Niou and then back to the screen. “Yes.”

“I'll send Yuushi, then. He's been reading romance novels when he thinks I'm not looking, he needs something to keep him busy.”

Niou wanted to stay to listen but he had already pushed over his chair in his haste to move and was already halfway out the room and running towards his bedroom. He had an hour to pack and get to the ports. It seemed inconceivable that only a few minutes ago he had been lying in the front hallway and now he was going to the colonies, having received access to the most restrictive section, even before the colonies had entered their current state of lockdown.

He wasn't going to mess up this chance.


	8. Destroyer

How had things changed so suddenly? Yagyuu sat in the shuttle the colonies, staring out the window. It was silent, the rest of the seats empty. Shopping for books with Niou and eating lunch with him just a few hours before felt like a lifetime ago.

There had been anger when he'd left: anger at Niou for purposely befriending him as some sort of joke, for making the comments about replacement legs and modifying his wheelchair, all the while knowing that _he_ was the one responsible for making him need them in the first place. For surely that had been the only scenario possible. How could he not have known?

He felt humiliated, in a way that made his teeth grind together and hate his current physical condition in a way that he hadn't since the first few days after waking up in the hospital.

He told himself now that perhaps he should have waited, tried to listen to Niou's explanation no matter how pathetic it would have been. Because surely any explanation would have been better than that which he came up with by himself. But he had left, calling his mother to request clearance to return to the colonies even as he haphazardly threw things into his bag and left behind that which couldn't easily fit.

He'd seen the obvious panic in Niou's eyes as he'd noticed Yagyuu had been listening and the attempted explanations that he'd dismissed as falsities. He'd heard the confession that he'd been the one to design the mechanism that had brought down the walls of the protected cities just weeks before. And just a few hours ago, those two things had been enough for him. But it wasn't until now that Yagyuu replayed the conversations over in his mind that he saw the hurt and remembered Niou saying that he'd built them without knowing.

Without knowing what?

Not knowing that they would kill hundreds of people and injure even more? Surely even Niou wasn't that ridiculous and naïve. But, Yagyuu reminded himself, perhaps he really was. Or was it not knowing that _Yagyuu_ would be caught up in it, even if he hadn't known about his existence until days after the fact?

Was it self-centered for him to think that it was likely the latter?

It didn't excuse what Niou had done by any extent, Yagyuu logically told himself over and over again. Regret over hurting one person didn't mean Niou was allowed to feel no guilt over the others injured. But everytime he did, he just thought of Niou talking to Yukimura again and the cycle of anger, trying to justify it to himself, thinking that perhaps _he_ had made some sort of impact personally... followed by his own logical lecture, and anger again.

The anger finally faded as the shuttle took off from the ports, too late for him to turn around and try to seek an explanation. It was replaced with a bone-deep feeling of hurt and sadness that made him almost wish for the mindless anger back as he closed a mental hand over it and pushed it to one side.

There were many things inherently _wrong_ with Niou Masaharu and Yagyuu took some vindictive pleasure in listing them out. His messiness, his presumptions towards physical contact and Yagyuu's personal space that had too often been invaded to his discomfort, the lack of thought that he sometimes had, the immaturity and naivety that Yagyuu had discovered all too late... but the more he thought about them, the more he realised how _natural_ those things had become and that he didn't seem to mind them as much as he thought he had.

He should hate Masaharu Niou. He should despite the entirety of the people he'd met at Sanada Dojo, for surely all of them were part of that attack or knew about the source behind it. He knew that, logically. But the further away from the ports he got, the more he found himself illogically almost wishing that he had just gone straight up to the bedroom after using the bathroom instead of doubling back to ask Niou when he'd be turning in for the night.

It had been a mistake, planning to stop over in the ports for so long and making endless excuses to himself for why he'd turned down his mother's offers for helping him return home through their night time conversations. He still had things to buy, there were still places he hadn't seen, his legs wouldn't be ready anyway so he might as well enjoy himself... because surely there had never been any doubt to his plan to return home to the colonies eventually.

Right?

Yagyuu closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. How did it come to this?

–

There were many things that Yuushi Oshitari was prepared to do for Atobe. Travelling to the alpha colony docks to escort someone around the colonies was no really one of them, if he was honest, no matter how much free time Atobe claimed he had.

Officially, he was Atobe's closet confidante and advisor to his position as Council representative for the Alpha series of colonies. And while it wasn't specifically in his job description, everyone knew that he was mostly in charge of the series of defensive military positions around the colonies.

Unofficially, he was the head of Atobe's admittedly quite extensive intelligence network, occasional lover and childhood companion.

He'd listened – far more often than he would have liked if he was honest – to Atobe complain about Sanada and his ragtag group of mechanics down on the November port. Often these complaints went on a predictable tangent of Atobe talking about how Sanada insisted on using the official communication channels and had called him a total of _once_ in their entire time of knowing each other, on Atobe's private channel that very few people had and was always answered. Twice now, though, an event he had been forced to listen to Atobe talk about for a good ten minutes.

The docks were quiet, what with the lockdown still in effect. He hadn't asked Atobe what he'd done to get almost immediate clearance for a private shuttle, but he'd look into it when he had the chance. The ship hadn't arrived yet and Oshitari waited outside, listening to a particularly irate commander of the defence company at Boaz on his communicator.

“I cannot authorise Shishido's request for leave, Commander Kite,” Oshitari said, repeating himself again. “Our intelligence suggests the Earth nations are beginning to blame the Colonies as being behind the recent attacks. We need both Ootori and Shishido there in case this escalates beyond diplomatic talks. They're the only two capable of operating the positron cannon at Boaz.” he paused and shook his head in exasperation. “Yes, you can tell him I said that if you must.”

He glanced at the entrance of the docks again and ended the communication as he saw a lone figure exiting the building, carrying a bag. Atobe had been fairly vague with his descriptions of Niou, calling him a number of things that seemed to revolve around being ill-bred and having poor manners but didn't actually tell him anything about his physical appearance. Oshitari hadn't paid much attention to them anyway, being much more interested in the almost fantastical and pitiful reason he was coming to the colonies in the first place, a story that he'd had to call up Yukimura to verify. Young love was so beautiful.

“Masaharu Niou?” he asked, approaching him. “Yuushi Oshitari. I was sent by Keigo to help you chase after your errant lover. It sounds absolutely wonderful, you must give me details.”

Niou paused and looked at him for a long moment before laughing to himself. “Well, at least it isn't the idiot meeting me himself.”

Oshitari was surprised into a laugh and gestured for Niou to follow him to the car. Up close, Oshitari could see the haggardness of his face and the look of someone who was deeply hurting. He put a hand on Niou's shoulder and smiled at him as he took a hold of his bag.

Well, he supposed there were worse things he could be doing instead.

–

Niou had never been to the colonies before, for reasons that he'd never really bothered to stop and think about. Akaya had been and brought back sundry gifts and although he'd talked about going and some point, he'd never gotten around to it.

And honestly, this was the last reason why he'd want to have finally gone.

They were... different to the ports. More sterile and artificial in a way that didn't quite show as blatantly as the similarly man-made constructs of the ports. He could almost imagine the sky looked brighter and the air had a strange plastic, manufactured taste as Niou breathed in deeply.

But oddly enough, this was the sort of environment that Niou could easily imagine Yagyuu growing up in and living in happily, with his fastidious and orderly personality, even with how easily he'd slotted himself into Sanada Dojo. And for that reason alone, Niou decided that he rather didn't like the colonies.

Oshitari was nice, in a strange way and he was far too interested in hearing about Yagyuu as they drove towards his house. It was convenient, that Oshitari lived in the same sector as the docks were in, though Oshitari said that was probably the _last_ reason why Atobe had given him this job.

In between bouts of conversation, they fell silent and enjoyed the music that filtered through the car. Niou listened to the exact same music when he worked, partly because he rather enjoyed it, and partly because Sanada absolutely hated it.

They spoke that night, quietly over cups of tea and chocolate, Niou telling Oshitari almost woodenly what had happened and expanding into his guilt, his horrible feelings that Yagyuu wasn't going to forgive him no matter how far he chased him, that he'd ruined _everything_ , that he hated that he had agreed to help Yukimura in the first place... that he was a fool for befriending Yagyuu in the first place, until he choked on his chocolate and hot tears dripped into his cup as Oshitari turned away and pretended not to notice as he took a sip of his tea.

Niou didn't sleep that night, even with the resplendent guest room that he was provided and the bed that fluffed and bounced most pleasingly when he had lain down on it. It was too difficult to swing up to the roof as he might have back at home, but he sufficed with opening the window and sitting on the ledge, staring out at the stimulated sky until it changed colour and the colony sector started to come to life again.

Oshitari took one look at him when he came downstairs for breakfast and handed him a cup of coffee, rich and fragrant in a way that the cheap, bitter coffee Sanada bought on the ports almost never was. Niou sat quietly as Oshitari spent most of the breakfast making calls, talking about people at Boaz but Niou didn't pay too much attention, pushing his breakfast around his plate instead of eating it.

It was mid-morning by the time they actually left the house. Despite Oshitari's suggestions, Niou took his bag with them, in some misguided hope that he wasn't quite willing to admit to yet, that returning to Oshitari's house later wouldn't be necessary.

They headed straight for the central tower that was just a short drive away. From there, they could access the bridges to the other sectors and the other colonies. With the warmth of the car and the sound of Oshitari humming along to his music – some bouncy song about kissing on the beach in sandals – it was quite easy to just doze off and he was woken up by a pat on his shoulder.

“Now darling, where does your sweetheart live?”

Niou stared at Oshitari for a long moment and pulled a face. “Never call him that again. Please.”

He laughed and glanced at Niou. “Feet down, please. This is Keigo's car, not mine.” Oshitari gently touched his knee and Niou dropped his feet down and sat up properly. “Do you have an address?”

Niou paused and frowned. He hadn't thought too much about what he was actually going to do when he got to the colonies as he'd grabbed Sanada's bike and rode to the dock at fast as he could, swerving between cars. Nor had he thought too much about it in the last two nights, his mind just replaying that one horrible night endlessly and wallowing in his guilt. And telling himself over and over again that somehow he'd fix this. But now that he stopped and Oshitari looked expectantly at him... Niou realised he had no idea where Yagyuu lived.

“I don't know.”

“I beg your pardon?”

He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed at his face, trying to think. “He said... he said he'd be staying at his parent's house. On Alpha 3.”

Niou could see Oshitari's gaze in the mirror and he turned away to stare at the window. Learning Yagyuu's address hadn't seemed important in the weeks of him in the ports because back then... it was almost like he was never going to leave. Or perhaps Niou just didn't want to consider the idea that Yagyuu was actually going to leave, no matter how much he said so.

He listened to the sound of something being keyed into a communicator but he refused to let himself look, staring instead at the building that they'd pulled up in front of.

“Hikaru, I need Councilwoman Yagyuu's home address.”

“... Why?”

“I'm helping two star-crossed lovers reunite there. I'll call you after and tell you all the details.”

He'd only heard vague mentions of Oshitari before – mostly from when Yanagi visited and Niou happened to overhear his conversations with Yukimura and Sanada. It was always just mentions of information though: Oshitari passing on intelligence to Yanagi or Oshitari's sources finding such and such out. Even with knowing that tiny bit of background though, and knowing he was in such close contact with the three and Atobe, Niou found it almost too easy to trust the man with his easy, relaxed smile and neat pair of glasses.

It wasn't just him though, Niou quickly discovered. 

Oshitari seemed to know _everyone_ and they were let through the bridges with open access to the rest of the sectors without needing to mention Atobe or bring out the access code Atobe had sent him via Sanada. Oshitari greeted the guards at each intersection station by name and passed a few idle words with them each time, Niou passing through the different stations with ease.

“Hey Yuushi,” Niou said as they travelled along the bridge. Above them moved people in the opposie direction and Niou looked up at them briefly before back to his companion.

“Yes, darling?”

“How are you doing this?”

Oshitari raised an eyebrow at him. “You'll have to be more specific than that if you want an answer.”

Niou gestured vaguely around them and shrugged. “You know, know everyone, pass by the security check points...”

He smiled in an infuriatingly enigmatic way and turned away. “They're just things I've picked up over the years.” He patted Niou on the back and his smile widened. “If you pay attention, it's easy enough to learn.”

Niou was fairly convinced that Atobe must have cars everywhere because there was one waiting for them as they exited the tower and Oshitari seemed just as pedantic about Niou's feet being firmly on the floor of the car in this one as well. He looked carefully at Oshitari's face this time as he concentrated on the road and listening to the robotic directions as he drove. His staring didn't seemed to get any reaction out of the man, though Niou concluded that it was either because he didn't particularly mind or that he just didn't notice. Niou was willing to be that it was the former.

“Are you genetically modified?” he asked finally.

He saw Oshitari's eyes widen slightly and glance quickly at him. “What makes you think that?”

“Just a number of little things.” He shrugged.

There was a pause and Oshitari hummed a little in thought. “Would it change your opinion of me if I said I was?”

He tilted his head to the side and looked at Oshitari consideringly for a long moment before he answered. “Probably not.” He laughed and sat back in the car seat. “I think I'd rather like you anyway.” Niou could see Oshitari's small smile out of the corner of his eye and he smiled back.

–

Yagyuu's family house was large and sprawling, in a way that didn't quite fit the neat, often simple in a humbling way persona of Yagyuu that Niou had come to know. But he could understand, maybe, how Yagyuu had grown up that way.

He got out of the car, swinging his bag over his shoulder and as he closed the door the window came down and Oshitari looked at him. “Are you sure you don't want me to wait? You know he might refuse to let you in.”

Perhaps it was just bravado that had made Niou refuse Oshitari's offer, or maybe some really optimistic hope that Yagyuu would let him in regardless of how angry he was, because surely Yagyuu was still angry. He couldn't and wouldn't blame Yagyuu if he did just shut the door in his face though.

“Well, you have my private channel number if you need me to pick you up.” Oshitari smiled at him. “But you must call me later regardless and tell me all the details of your reunion.”

Despite what Oshitari had said though, Niou didn't hear the car start again until he was at the front door, but even then it didn't drive off. Niou glanced back at him before turning to knock on the door, clenching his fingers together to stop his hand from shaking as he let it drop.

He could hear the soft murmur of voices if he strained his ears and Niou tried not to fidget as he waited. The door opened finally and he found himself looking straight at Yagyuu. There was surprise on his face that no doubt mirrored the look on Niou's, but then it faltered for a moment to crease in pain and Niou saw Yagyuu's fingers tighten on the door as though he was about to close it.

“Masaharu. What are you doing here?”

He could hear the unasked question between them though - _why_ did you follow me here? - and his stomach dropped. Yagyuu clearly had just thought to... leave it behind by leaving physically and hadn't expected his experience at the ports to follow behind him.

Niou didn't answer, didn't know how to answer as he stared at Yagyuu who was waiting for one with his endless patience. There was no anger like he'd been bracing himself for, just some resigned tiredness and Niou didn't know how to react to that. “I'm...” he trailed off and he could see the shadows under Yagyuu's eyes and the creasing between his eyebrows. “... I don't know.”

There was a long silence between them and Niou looked everywhere but Yagyuu's eyes: his nose, the rims of his glasses, the parting of his pair and the stray hairs that fell on the wrong side, the tensing of his jaw... and tried to ignore that he could feel Yagyuu studying him just as closely. He hadn't looked in the mirror before he'd left Oshitari's house, how messy was his hair? How shadowed were his eyes from nights without sleep and just sitting up worrying and crying himself until no more tears had come? 

Had he even tied his hair back? Niou lifted a hand up to feel the hair at the nape of his neck, still pulled back into a no doubt straggly looking tail and let his hand drop down, deciding that he really didn't care right now enough to fix it.

Yagyuu finally sighed and wheeled backwards, opening the door a little wider. “Come in, Masaharu. I'll make you some tea.”

He could see the humour in the situation, but Niou didn't feel like laughing at it as he was led to a sitting room and perched himself uncomfortably on a lounge chair. They were silent as Yagyuu poured the tea and Niou looked at the plain white china of Yagyuu's cup, much different from the cartoonish red bee-print cup that had seemed to become Yagyuu's over the past month.

“Why didn't you tell me?” Yagyuu spoke first and Niou glanced up at him and then back down to Yagyuu's hands on his tea cup.

He laughed bitterly and shook his head. “I told you we were secretly a criminal organisation, didn't I?”

“Nobody would believe that and you know that when you told me,” Yagyuu said and Niou was relieved to hear some amusement in his voice.

They lapsed into silence again and Niou pressed his hands against the side of his warm teacup. It was comforting, even if it wasn't as good as the ones they had shared around the scarred workbench in his room.

“You know I didn't want to hurt you, right?” he asked eventually and he heard Yagyuu sigh. Niou clenched his eyes shut. “Both with... you finding out and in the initial attack.” He exhaled loudly and he just kept talking, the words spilling over one another, getting louder and louder. “If I'd known you before, I wouldn't... I would've said no, no matter what Seiichi would've said and now... was it _wrong_ to go along with it? I know the damage it did but I didn't give a fuck because... I didn't... ...” His grip tightened on the cup until he felt Yagyuu lean across and touch his hands to make him loosen his grip. “I didn't give a shit about any of them except you. And I still kind of don't. And I don't know why! Even if stupid Sanada or stupid Akaya or Marui were down there I wouldn't have given a shit either. And I know that's really wrong of me but... just you.”

He let Yagyuu take the cup off him and he heard the sound of china against glass as it was put down on the table. But the hand on top of his didn't move and Niou moved his hand to grip Yagyuu's, pressing the heel of his other hand against his eye. He didn't want to look at Yagyuu's face, he didn't want to see the look of disapproval and condemnation that was undoubtedly there, no matter how accepting Yagyuu was of him squeezing the life out of his hand.

“I wish you'd never found out,” he choked out and he bit his lip, hearing Yagyuu sigh again.

“I almost wish that too.”

Yagyuu's words were quiet and Niou let out a shaky breath, almost not daring to breathe again.

He lost track of how long they sat in silence, most of his attention on how Yagyuu let him still hold his hand while he calmed himself down, their tea going cold because he never heard the sound of Yagyuu taking a sip of his own cup.

“Would you have told me eventually?” Yagyuu asked finally, breaking the silence. “Or would you have tried to keep it a secret?”

Niou make himself look at Yagyuu's face and he shook his head. “...I don't know.”

Yagyuu wheeled himself a little closer so he could comfortably put their hands on his lap, and he looked as though he was bracing himself for something. “I cannot approve of what you did, or what your group is doing.” He sounded like he was considering each of his words carefully before he spoke. “But I want to try to understand, regardless.”

Any of the others in the group probably would have told him not to say anything, that Yagyuu wasn't to be trusted and that he would be taking Niou's information to the Council to have them prosecuted. But he couldn't bring himself to lie or say nothing, not with Yagyuu staring directly at him.

So he spoke. Of what he'd done, with perhaps far too much technical detail than Yagyuu really cared about, to bring down the walls of the cities and simulated the earthquakes. Of what little he knew about what Yukimura was eventually planning, of what he had gathered about Sanada and Atobe, of his own feelings towards everything and his own reluctance to continue now.

Yagyuu never interrupted, even when he spent close to twenty minutes describing the exact specifications for the series of explosives, complete with hand waving with his one free hand. But his expression grew more troubled with each passing minute.

He dwelt on his regret, the conflict when he'd met Yagyuu, even though Yagyuu never asked him about it. How he was caught between never wanting Yagyuu to leave, and almost wishing that he'd never come to Sanada Dojo in the first place.

They didn't eat, neither of them felt like eating even when Yagyuu pointed out that it had gotten late into the night. And it was only then that Niou stopped talking, his tumble of words finally coming to a halt.

Almost without asking, Yagyuu showed him to a spare room and where the bathroom was, the bed already made up. But he didn't seem to surprised, nor did he object, when Niou crept into his bedroom just a short while later and they spent a quiet night in each other's company, sleep eluding both of them.

They fell into a strange coexistence, Yagyuu never asking Niou to leave, and Niou never making the move to leave of his own accord. There was tension still, and sometimes their conversations became stilted and quite often they sat in silence, but they still remained always together around the house.

There was just one other person in the house with them, who seemed to be responsible for the meals that appeared three times a day, no matter how little either of them felt like eating, and the neatly made bed in Yagyuu's room every night.

Niou slept in Yagyuu's room, squashing up together on one side of the bed despite the mattress spreading out the other side unoccupied. He didn't ask and Yagyuu never complained. They both slept deeply that second night and they were woken by the aide who had come in to wake Yagyuu up, late in the morning. While the man had never said anything to either of them on the subject, Yagyuu had dryly noted that he had no doubt told his parents about finding their son curled up in bed with another man.

It took Niou three days to realise what bothered him the most about Yagyuu's house: the silence and lack of people. His mother was never around, save for one night when she had returned home and left the morning after before either of them had woken up. Although Niou saw her regularly on the news that Yagyuu insisted on watching every day. 

Yagyuu's father was completely absent the entire time.

The coldness of the house left Niou uncomfortable, so used to the bustle and warmth of Sanada Dojo, no matter how much he may complain about it. But the coldness slowly faded as the discomfort between them did as well, and save for the avoidance of certain topics, the still very faint barrier between them and the considering looks he sometimes caught Yagyuu giving him, he could almost make himself believe that the incident had never happened and things were back to normal.

–

Yagyuu hadn't known how to feel about Niou showing up on his doorstep, or about anything that had followed. And he still didn't know. 

He had felt that strange sense of familiarity, comfort and... security that he'd felt when he'd first met Niou in the ports and Yagyuu had to stop himself from just forgiving Niou. He couldn't forgive him and everyday, pulling himself into his wheelchair, he wouldn't let himself forget what he'd done either.

It frightened him how naturally they had fallen back into their relationship after the first night. No matter how hard he tried to maintain a distance between them, it just seemed to melt away as easily as he'd created it.

So he decided for the meantime to just ignore it, as the only option he had left to him that his conscience would accept. 

It had been a spur of the moment decision one night to ask Niou if he wanted to visit his father's lab to check on the progress of Yagyuu's limbs. The work was partly confidential, especially given his father's reticence for publicity after his past, but Yagyuu thought he wouldn't mind for someone he invited along. He thought Niou would say no, what with his general disdain for genetic engineering and cloning over mechanical replacements, but surprisingly Niou had readily agreed.

A terrible part of him thought that Niou would have agreed to doing just about anything at this point and he made himself promise not to abuse that knowledge.

They walked, although Niou had offered to get a car to drive them, saying that he had someone relatively close by who would probably be happy to drive them about, but Yagyuu had declined.

He tried not to think about how normal it felt to have Niou next to him as he led them both on a roundabout route to the laboratory, pointing out landmarks and places from his childhood. He'd learned that Niou had never been to the colonies before, and he greedily took in the new information.

Niou stopped as they reached the entrance to the research labs. The gates were closed, the walls large, imposing structures that blocked most of the view of the building save what they could see through the gate.

“Wow, what's with the walls?”

“They increased security quite a few years ago and had them built,” Yagyuu said. He remembered his father discussing the issue with his mother over dinner a few times when he was younger. “I think there were protests outside? There may have been a break in. I'm not entirely sure, I'm sorry. We can ask my father if you are still curious.”

“Nah, it's fine. Just seems strange, everything else here is so... open.”

Yagyuu glanced at him as he pulled out his ID card, flashing it at the camera to be let in. “Hiroshi Yagyuu, here to visit my father. With a guest.”

He'd been in and out of the labs his entire life, and with everyone in the lab knowing about his current condition, having someone with him to help with his wheelchair wasn't really to be unexpected. He got the confirmation through the speaker and the gates opened.

He heard a sharp intake of breath as Niou got his first proper look at the building, quite different to one of awe that he might have expected and he turned to look at him in some concern. He saw the wide eyes and the almost convulsive clenching of his fingers.

“Masaharu? What wrong?”

Niou shook his head and his hands clenched into fists. “I don't know. Just getting some sort of déjà vu, or something.” He blinked rapidly a few times and shook his head again. “I have no idea.”

Yagyuu looked at him for a long moment and then back at the building. “Are you alright to continue?”

“Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go.” Niou certainly didn't look it, but Yagyuu didn't disagree with him. Still...

“I would appreciate it if you would push me through to the entrance at least. The loose paving here can make manoeuvrability a little difficult.”

“Really? But the Sterren models have auto...” Niou trailed off in confusion and then laughed, moving to stand behind him. “If you say so, Hiroshi.”

The increased security was even more evident than Yagyuu had expected as they entered the building, since he normally came in with his father and didn't have to go through the stringent checks. But Niou was subjected to a pat down that involved much wiggling and protesting on his part while Yagyuu watched on with some amusement. He just smiled as Niou rejoined him, red in the face with his communicator and, oddly, a 15-head attachment pocket screwdriver in hand.

“Pray tell, why do you have that?” Yagyuu asked as Niou shoved them back in his pockets.

“You never know when you'll need one,” he said. “Your wheelchair could've broken on the street and, lucky you Hiroshi, I could have tried fixing it.”

Yagyuu blinked. “Do you always carried it then? Even back home?”

Niou shrugged. “Did you know even all my sleepwear has pockets just for this?” He laughed at Yagyuu's expression and without needing to be asked, fell back behind Yagyuu. “I'm joking, Hiroshi. I only take it when I go out.”

“I see.”

He didn't doubt that security had told his father that they were there, and his suspicions were confirmed when they turned a corner and saw his father waiting for them before they reached the main lab area. He had followed the same route that he'd always been taken on as a child, and he laughed a little inside at the realisation of how ingrained it had become.

“Hiroshi, you should have told me you were coming today,” he said, approaching them. “I could have picked you up from home.”

“It was a last minute decision and the walk was enjoyable. Right, Masaharu?”

Niou blinked in surprise and Yagyuu's father's attention turned to him. “Father, this is my friend Masaharu Niou. He'd visiting from the November port. Masaharu, this is Professor Akihiro Yagyuu, my father.”

“Niou?” Akihiro's eyes searched Niou's face closely and there was an almost tangible awkwardness in the air. “What a peculiar last name,” he said finally with a smile. “Quite unique, in fact.” He looked at Yagyuu consideringly and then back to Niou. “Here we use 'niou' to refer to the 20th experiment in a certain set, did you know?”

Yagyuu heard Niou's grip tightening on the handholds of his wheelchair. “What a coincidence.” There was also something forced in Niou's voice and Yagyuu didn't doubt that if he turned around to look, Niou's smile would be just as false, if there was even one there.

His father led the way first, inviting them to follow him. Yagyuu twisted around to see Niou's closed-off expression and he awkwardly reached to pat his arm. “Do you want to go home? We don't have to see the lab, I can come back by myself.”

Niou shook his head and waved off Yagyuu's concerns, although he clenched his own fingers around Yagyuu's hand for a moment. “No, I want to see. And you do too. I'm fine, it's fine.” He seemed to be reassuring himself more than anything and Yagyuu almost wanted to insist that they leave, but Niou already started to push his wheelchair along and he had to settle back into a comfortable sitting position and go along with it.

He hadn't been to the lab for quite a few years, since he'd moved out of home and onto another sector of the Alpha colony. But he had memories of spending large parts of his childhood here, staring at the machines and probably tiring all the researchers with his endless questions. The doors were just as numerous and well guarded with his father needing to swipe a card to get through each locked one, holding them each open for them to follow him through.

The machines had mostly been upgraded in the past few years, as had the range of experiments that he could see, but it still had a familiar, almost quite comforting feeling to it all.

Niou on the other hand, seemed tense and wound up and something was definitely bothering him from the frown on his face. But despite Yagyuu twice asking him about it, Niou refused to say anything, but his shoulders hunched and his hands on the wheelchair were white.

They stopped at the tank holding Yagyuu's still growing legs and he gazed up at them, almost feeling a phantom itch where his knees should have been and he unconsciously reached down, his fingers only touching soft blanket and he clenched his fingers in it before sighing and sitting back.

They were nearing full maturity, his father said, with only a few weeks left of growth. “We have had to make adjustments to slow the growth now so they don't age faster than you do when we transplant them. We have been perfecting the process over the years and are now able to match the rate with a 97% accuracy.”

Yagyuu moved off to look through the files, skimming the data and keeping half an ear on the conversation his father and Niou started up.

“So, Niou. Hiroshi is very lucky to have found a friend like you while he was away. We were worried about him wanting to stay in the ports for so long. Now I know why. How did you two meet?”

“I ran into him in a coffee shop. He was buying awful tea.” Said like that, it seemed like an almost ridiculous meeting, but Yagyuu couldn't exactly correct him because well... it wasn't like it was false. “So then I brought him back to the shop.”

“The shop?”

“Ah, it's a small mechanic shop. I work and live there.”

“Is it owned by your... parents, then?” 

Niou laughed, the first unforced response out of him thus far and Yagyuu looked over at them quickly. “ _Definitely_ not. It's just an old man who took me in as an apprentice.”

The conversation continued, with Akihiro still asking more questions and Niou answering reluctantly. It was strange, he'd never taken much of an interest in Yagyuu's friends before and if he had, it was never to this extent. Still, he supposed that they'd met in different circumstances than he had with most of his friends and, even after just a few weeks of knowing Niou, he certainly felt oddly _closer_ to him than with others. And he didn't doubt that his father could see that.

“You've done a lot then, for your age. You must only be... 25 at the most? Younger than Hiroshi, certainly.” There was something calculating about the tone of voice, and Yagyuu frowned. It wasn't an innocent question, even though it certainly seemed like one.

“I'm about 25. I don't really know.” Niou was talking very reluctantly now and he seemed to know there was some intention behind the question too, even if neither of them knew what. Yagyuu touched Niou's elbow with his hand, making him jump and he smiled at him.

“I think it's time we leave. I still have to show you the science museum and we'll be late for our planned dinner.” A lie, but he didn't think Niou would contradict him, going by the relaxing of the tension in his body at the suggestion and his rather blatant, unspoken desire to leave.

“Of course, I'll let you out.”

Yagyuu didn't fail to notice that Niou kept him in the middle, almost like a barrier between himself and Akihiro, even making Yagyuu hold onto his hand for the walk instead of choosing to push his wheelchair, his grip tight. He was almost sorry to have brought Niou here.

They reached the door and his father paused before he swiped his card.

“Ah, Hiroshi I forgot to mention. I'm afraid Niou will have to stay behind.”

Yagyuu turned to look at him, frowning. “I beg your pardon?”

“You're aware of standard procedure. Incomplete experiments aren't permitted to leave the laboratory.”

“What are you talking about?” There was that horrible, sneaking suspicion as things started falling into place and Yagyuu pushed it all to the side, refusing to believe it. Niou's fingernails were digging into his hand so hard that Yagyuu thought they might draw blood, but he didn't say anything about it, too intent on staring at his father.

“Your friend is experiment 20, codename 'niou' from our artificial human creation project”

“... What?” The question came from both of them and he could feel Niou's hand start to tremble as he gripped it back.

“That research was banned by the council, you should have destroyed all of your experiments years ago.”

Akihiro looked at him almost pityingly and Yagyuu stared back at him. “The research was hidden from the public, not banned. You should understand, Hiroshi. It was too important a line of research to ignore because of some protests and the council understood that.”

Yagyuu's breathing was shaking and Niou seemed to be barely breathing at all beside him. “How many are there, then? How many _people_ do you have locked away in your lab?”

Akihiro's voice was clinical and detached as he spoke next. “No others. They're all dead now. Except for one it seems, miraculously alive after he escaped over 10 years ago. I must thank you Hiroshi, for finding and returning him to me.”

There wasn't anything he could do as Niou was bodily pulled away from him, shouting and fighting, short of speaking furiously with this father, his words falling on deaf ears. He considered for one wild moment pushing himself out of his chair, but it would achieve nothing. 

He had never hated his physical state more than that moment as another researcher pushed him out the door. And even as he spun his chair around to go back inside, to argue more, to try and tell his father that he must be _insane_ to come up with such a delusion and completely mistaken, the door shut with a heavy finality and he heard the sound of the lock slide into place.


	9. Maker

Part 06: Maker

Niou.

That was the name he'd told Sanada when he'd been first found. He hadn't been sure if it was actually his name, but he had memories of people calling him that and it felt right. And so it had become his, even with 'Masaharu' being made up and added to it.

He had few memories of his life before the ports: memories of a certain sprawling building with endless corridors and a heavy door that he'd had to throw his whole weight against to open the one time he saw it and gravel on the pathway that had cut into his feet as he'd run, the sound of alarms, shouting and people chasing behind him. He'd looked back at the building once.

Niou had somehow, miraculously found himself at the docks and he'd stowed away in the cargo of a shuttle heading somewhere, anywhere, he didn't care. He just knew he wanted to get away from where he was now.

The ports had been new and amazing, filled with bright smells and so many people that he'd spent half of the first day hiding and watching, trying to come to terms with what he was seeing. When he had finally emerged, no one had taken much notice of the half-naked teenager wandering amongst them, nor had they noticed how his fingers had slipped into their pockets to take their money so he could purchase and scrounge together a mismatched outfit of his own that he nonetheless thought to be quite respectable.

Living on the streets in the ports was difficult, especially as he'd learned very quickly the necessities to living. He'd discussed those days with Akaya, the only person in the group that could understand. Food could be stolen or bought when he'd built up his collection of notes that he flicked through when he was bored, looking at the patterns and colours. Water fell into the same category as food. Finding shelter though, and somewhere to sleep at night was... well, he'd gotten into his fair share of fights over it, once running away from a choice overhang, a haggard man lying on the ground under it, red liquid running from his head into the gutter and staining Niou's hands.

But while the nights were hard, the daytime lacked no entertainment. Exploring took up much of his time, as did peering through the windows into stores that held endless electronic items. But he had enough money sense by then to know that he'd never be able to afford them. So instead he amused himself by seeing what electronics he could find on the streets instead.

Which was how he met Sanada. The man had been coming to throw out his garbage for the night and had found Niou steadily pulling apart his heating system control unit that had been attached to his outside wall. He'd expected Sanada to be angry – and he had been – but he had never expected to find the incident leading to him living in Sanada Dojo from that day on.

It had been so different living there and while he sometimes questioned why he had agreed to Sanada's deal for lodging in return for Niou becoming his apprentice, when he finally really thought about it, he couldn't see himself living or doing anything else. Sanada had been a strict teacher and Niou had moved quickly – too quickly, he discovered later – through his lessons. There had also been the companionship with Akaya and the stream of people that came to visit and became known and important to him too.

Sanada had taught him everything, from social etiquette – which he freely admitted that he often ignored – to being able to ride a bike and shoot a gun. All the physical lessons had come quickly to him, in a way that sometimes left Sanada frowning at him speculatively, but neither of them openly discussed the issue and he had a feeling that Sanada never discussed it with anyone else either.

Oh, he knew Yanagi and Yukimura had had the same suspicions as Sanada, but he knew that none of them particularly _cared_ about whether or not he was genetically modified, just about whether he could be useful to them or not. And that suited him fine.

'Masaharu' was the name Sanada and Yanagi had come up with together when they had gone to register him at the guild and get his identification number. He kept 'Niou' and had somehow known the connection to the number 20 subconsciously, even as he joked about his special 20 modifications to everything he built and repaired at the workshop, or needing 20 trials for Yukimura's explosives for the attack on Earth.

His mind turned to those attacks, those cursed attacks that had led, somehow, miraculously, to meeting Yagyuu. How did he even go about describing how it had felt to meet Yagyuu and to befriend him?

Like a man being given a helping hand when he hadn't even been aware he was slowly drowning, perhaps.

Yagyuu.

What had happened to him after he'd left the lab? Niou had seen him pushed out the door into the hallway, but that was it. Had he just accepted it and gone back to his soft life in the colonies? Had he tried to put his time with Niou behind him completely?

… Surely he wouldn't have.

Right?

Surely he hadn't accepted the rubbish his father had sprouted about Niou being an experiment. Surely he was going to be right there in front of him, to get him out of this mess.

Niou drifted into consciousness and away from the strange state of almost-sleep, with only his thoughts for company. He felt like he was floating in water, weightless, but that couldn't be right because he was breathing just fine.

He opened his eyes slowly and saw the distorted image of someone staring at him. For a moment, one beautiful moment he thought it was Yagyuu from the hair, the glasses and his fingers twitched and he tried, so hard to reach towards him.

And then there was shouting and more people coming in and the dream of it being Hiroshi vanished as he saw the profile of his father. He tried to move, his whole body feeling sluggish and he choked on the flow of air to his nose and mouth, trying to do _anything_.

His fingers touched solid glass in front of him and Niou's hand twitched again, feeling his mind turn sluggish again. Niou sighed quietly and let himself fall back into the depths of his thoughts again, his eyes closing.

–

It took Yagyuu a long time to leave the research building, only exiting as he was escorted out of the hallway by security, most likely on his father's orders. It took him even longer to reach home and it was only long familiarity with the streets that stopped him from getting lost as he wandered almost aimlessly through them, caught up in his thoughts.

Niou was an artificially created human, born... no, _created_ during his father's series of experiments that had been blacklisted by the general public over thirty years ago. It didn't surprise him that his father had continued it even after public condemnation, keeping the work behind the closed doors... but still...

It made sense, in a horrible way when he stopped to really think about it. Niou's natural talents, his unnatural hair colour that Yagyuu had just assumed was a product of genetic modification in the womb and hadn't given much thought to otherwise, the ability to create explosives to undermine some of the greatest technological advances in defence... things that Yagyuu had _known_ this entire time, but he'd ignored in favour of focusing on the smaller things like Niou's odd quirks, how he was demanding and petulant but how Yagyuu found himself going along with his requests anyway.

He couldn't figure out if he'd ignored them because he'd been blind and stupid not to realise it earlier and put it together... or because on some level he hadn't wanted himself to come to the inevitable conclusion.

Most of it could be explained by advanced genetic modification from inside the womb. But to think that Niou was completely built from nothing but a scrap of DNA, everything about him manufactured... Yagyuu took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

There was no question about leaving him there to whatever ideas his father had. There was nothing his father could say to him that would make him think otherwise.

He thought perhaps that Akihito Yagyuu had been too far removed from normal people for too long, too caught up in people's genetic modifications, in growing replacement parts for them and into treating people as just stepping stones to advancement. That was the kindest justification he could make for his father. But it still didn't excuse what he'd done.

He waved off the helper's concerns as he entered the house and moved towards his room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

There was really only one thing he could do now.

He'd keyed the number into his communicator a few days into being at the ports, as a safety precaution, but he'd never had to call it. And it was with a bit of trepidation that he brought up the screen and put through the call. How late was it over there? He hadn't thought to check.

It rang for a long time before someone finally answered, Akaya's face appearing on the screen. It had to be late, then.

"Hiroshi! Did Masaharu find you then?"

He almost felt guilty as he looked at Akaya's smile and had to cut across him as he started talking about what he'd been doing lately at the shop and how Yagyuu should come and see. "Akaya, I need you to get Sanada for me. I need to talk to him immediately."

Akaya frowned and glanced behind him. At a clock perhaps, Yagyuu thought. "He's asleep. He should be up in a few hours though?"

"You need to wake him up now. Please."

There was a long pause and Yagyuu could almost see Akaya weighing up the risks of waking up Sanada, a task that Yagyuu didn't envy him for. It wasn't a very pleasant prospect.

"Alright, hang on."

Yagyuu thanked him as he left and he looked at the back wall of Akaya's workroom instead, brightly lit and messy, even more so than Niou's had been before Yagyuu had arrived. There was no noise but Yagyuu sat patiently, waiting. Finally, he could hear the distant sound of heavy footsteps that he assumed were Sanada's and a moment later, the man's face appeared on the screen. He looked tired and needed to shave. And from his expression, he wasn't happy.

"What? Are you going to complain about Niou?"

"Sanada, Masaharu's been taken into my father's lab. He's one of his experiments."

Whatever Sanada had been expecting to hear, that clearly wasn't it and in any other circumstances, Yagyuu would have been pleased by the shocked look on his face and having rendered him speechless.

"I need to get him out."

"That idiot." Sanada was silent for a moment longer before he sighed and shook his head. "Fine. I'll send some help. What else do you need?"

Yagyuu glanced at the side of the screen as he thought he saw Yukimura's face there, looking most displeased. And then he looked back to Sanada. "I don't know. Perhaps some manner of weapons. A ship back to the ports for Masaharu."

Sanada looked at him consideringly. "Are you going to come back too?"

Yagyuu hesitated and he looked away from Sanada's face. “I don't know.”

Despite what Niou had said about Yukimura being in charge of their group, that Sanada didn't consult him on the issue, despite the stony faced expression he could see on Yukimura's face in the background, made him wonder. Sanada seemed to be thinking deeply and Yagyuu was silent until he finally spoke.

“I'll call Keigo and arrange for help to meet you at a safe house.” He turned away from Yagyuu to shout behind him. “Akaya, go pack, you're going too.” Sanada turned back to face Yagyuu. “I'll call you to give you the details later.”

“Thank you Sanada.”

“When you've returned Masaharu, you can thank me in person.”

–

Sanada did indeed call him later, if only briefly. “Pack what you want and then leave your house. I've passed your number on, someone else will contact you.”

So he did as he'd been told, leaving as soon as he'd packed his bags, taking Niou's with him as well. He still hadn't completely unpacked his bags since returning from the ports so it was a simple matter of just replacing some of his clothing, tossing his bag of toiletries in again and placing some of his valuable, small possessions in as well, spacing them between his and Niou's bags.

Even if he Sanada hadn't told him to do so, Yagyuu would have left on his own. He couldn't stay there. Even with such a low chance of his father returning home, Yagyuu wasn't in the mood to risk such a confrontation happening, no matter how satisfying it may have potentially been.

He made his way slowly to the central tower of the sector and it was only then that Yagyuu stopped, locking the wheels of his wheelchair to let himself think.

Where was he going? Should he just wait for the supposed contact here, where he could travel anywhere? Or should he turn back, if only for the close proximity to the labs? Or should he seek out a hotel near the dock so he could be close by when people started arriving as Sanada said they would? For a wild moment he thought about returning to his own apartment, but he reminded himself that he wouldn't be able to access it anyway in his current state.

He was distracted from his thoughts by his communicator ringing and Yagyuu pulled it out of his pocket, frowning at the unknown number as he accepted the connection.

The face appeared on the screen and Yagyuu blinked in surprise. They had blue hair and quite a handsome older face that Yagyuu, or indeed anyone would have been hard pressed to forget. He'd seen him, a few times, the advisor to Councilman Atobe. It was only then that Yagyuu realised that Yuushi Oshitari was obviously connected to it all and he sighed.

“Now that's not the most pleasant of greetings,” Oshitari said, almost sounding affronted. “Especially not where I'm here to help you.”

Yagyuu smiled wryly and shook his head. “My apologies, Yuushi Oshitari. I wasn't expecting you of all people to contact me.”

Oshitari waved off his words and glanced down at something. “You're to make your way to my house to wait for the rest of the arrivals. Please go to Alpha 10, I'll meet you at the tower.”

And just like that, the conversation was over and Yagyuu's grip tightened on his communicator as he looked at the blank screen. It still wasn't too late to back out of it all. Somehow he felt that when he finally met up with Oshitari, there would be no turning back and he'd be swept up inexorably in the whole mess of what it was Yukimura planned.

But he couldn't just leave Niou.

He expected meeting Oshitari to be awkward – perhaps part of him _wanted_ it to be awkward so he had some sort of excuse to think that asking Sanada for help had been a mistake. But he felt himself falling all too easily for the man's welcoming smile and easy conversation.

“We have a lot to discuss while we wait for everyone to arrive. Masaharu was quite... forthcoming with details but only from his side. I would very much like to know your side of the whole relationship.”

Yagyuu wasn't sure whether to be appreciative or not of Oshitari not avoiding the topic of Niou like perhaps other people he knew would have, had they been in his position. This feeling continued as he was endlessly grilled from the moment they met at the tower until they reached his house. While he didn't think that the events Oshitari asked about were anything out of the ordinary, he almost wanted to clutch the past few days privately to himself.

"I've made up a room for you to sleep," Oshitari said, carrying Niou's bag through the door for him. His smile softened slightly and he paused down the hallway. "Unless you can't sleep, in which case you may join me for some tea."

He had a feeling that Oshitari knew that he was anything but able to sleep right now, despite a sudden tiredness coming over him from the day's events. But he knew that if he lay down now, he would just reply the incident in the research lab over and over and sleep would elude him anyway. At least staying up with the offer for conversation was more appealing than tossing and turning in just the company of his own thoughts.

"May I ask how long it will be until everyone else is ready?"

"We're waiting on Akaya who will take the longest. But we should be ready by tomorrow night."

Yagyuu hesitated before he nodded. "Very well. Tea sounds nice."

They stayed up the entire night, alternating between stretches of silence and simply dwelling on their own thoughts and enjoying the silent companionship... and seemingly endless discussion about anything but what they were planning on doing the next day. Yagyuu's study at university, Oshitari's own role in the group, his actual job for Atobe, Atobe's almost ridiculous obsession with Sanada, a very small section of his own feelings for Niou which made him quite uncomfortable as he stopped to think about them properly for the first time.

How did he feel about Niou? He knew, and he had admitted to Oshitari, that the fact Niou was an artificial human didn't change the fact that he genuinely liked the other man. Any anger, sadness, betrayal that he had felt just days ago, and he would admit now had faded over the past few days alone, was gone now in light of what had happened. But beyond that? He didn't know. And Oshitari didn't push.

"I need to rest for a while, Hiroshi," Oshitari said finally as they saw the sunlight starting to appear. "Or else I shall be utterly useless to you tonight."

Yagyuu smiled wanly at him and he set down his cup of tea – how many had they been through throughout the night? "I will sit up and wait still."

"Feel free to use anything here. Try to keep your mind busy." And with a final farewell, he left and Yagyuu heard the heavy sound of tired footsteps go down the hallway and a door open and close.

Despite the offer and Yagyuu's speculative looks at a very generously proportioned bookshelf along the side wall, he remained at the table, finishing off his tea and staring at the window as the sky lightened outside.

–

His head jerked up and Yagyuu woke with a start, closing his eyes straight away to the bright light in the room. He exhaled loudly and pulled off his glasses to press a hand against his eyes, trying to think.

He must have dozed off at some point in his chair, something he had never done before even while studying late into the night. Yagyuu looked at the cold dregs of his tea on the table in front of him and sighed. First order of business was to go to the bathroom and wash his face, and then he could turn his attention to everything else.

“Did you sleep well?” Oshitari was there as he exited the bathroom, also looking quite refreshed as though he'd showered and had at least a few hours sleep. “I was going to move you to a proper bed but I didn't want to wake you up.”

Yagyuu grimaced. “I've slept better.” Now that he was more awake, he was more awake of the pain in his neck from sleeping upright and the fact that it really hadn't seemed to have done anything for his overall energy levels.

“I've been receiving messages all morning,” Oshitari said later, putting down a plate of food in front of Yagyuu and handing him another cup of tea. He felt almost terrible having probably drunk his way through half of Oshitari's tea leaf store in the past night, but he didn't think the other man minded at all. “Everyone should be arriving shortly.”

His fingers tightened on his fork and he looked down at his plate of food that was far more many separate pieces than the mess that Niou usually pushed onto him. His stomach churned and suddenly the thought of the colourless, yet oddly quite tasty... whatever it could be called, seemed more appealing.

“Are you ready for this?” Oshitari asked and Yagyuu could hear the unasked part of the question. Ready for breaking into his father's laboratory, for turning his back against the council, for diving down the rabbit hole for the sake of a friendship he'd had for a few scant weeks yet felt like forever.

He put down his utensils and looked up at Oshitari. The man seemed so calm and composed, so different to the reflection with shadowed eyes and tired face that he'd seen in the mirror just a few minutes before. Yagyuu nodded and Oshitari smiled at him.

“I can't imagine myself being more prepared. Though perhaps we should have slept properly last night.”

And they laughed and the ten years between them and any lingering strangeness and discomfort disappeared in their shared camaraderie.

–

Sanada hadn't told him who was coming, but Oshitari seemed to know as they started to gather at his house. Jackal showed up first, a suspiciously large bag with him and he greeted Yagyuu with a hug that took him by surprise. He'd only met the older man a couple of times down at Sanada Dojo and they'd gotten along but he hadn't expected the genuine affection that he felt through the hug.

“It was pretty hard crossing into the alpha sector,” Jackal said as he pulled away and spoke to Oshitari. “Mightn't be so bad getting to alpha 3, but we should probably prepare for it anyway.”

Oshitari frowned a little. “Yanagi's coming from the omega sector, we'll wait for his report.”

Jackal nodded and wandered off to the corner to set down his bag, talking about how his son was going at school. Yagyuu watched him silently as he started to pull out an assortment of guns and what looked like hand-held explosives and checked them, all the while discussing how his son was learning the multiplication tables by song.

“Does your family know what you do?” Yagyuu asked suddenly as there was a lull in conversation and Jackal looked at him in surprise. “You test military-grade weapons for a living, don't you?”

He would admit to not knowing much about that particular department of defence, but it seemed to range from simple handguns to the series of large positron cannons in main defensive positions around the colonies. He worried perhaps that Jackal might be offended by his question – after all, he didn't really have a right to question something like that – but the man just looked at him and smiled grimly.

“I'm just doing my job, Hiroshi. I don't think there's any difference between testing weapons for the government or Seiichi. They end up being used against other people either way.” His gaze was direct and he seemed quite different to the man he'd seen at Sanada Dojo, berating Sanada for listening to Yanagi and buying cheap coffee, or carrying off a drunken Marui after a night of him and Niou drinking. “At least with Seiichi, I get to choose _who_ I use them on in the end.”

He'd never taken the time to wonder how old Jackal was, assuming he'd be a few years his senior from the sounds of his son in school and his wife that was pregnant with another child. But it was only now that he saw the lines of care around his eyes and mouth and the hardness in his expression that faded away into an easy smile.

A young man who seemed perhaps a little older than Akaya showed up next, Jackal opening the door for him. Oshitari went straight to his side as soon as he was in the living room and started fussing over him, patting down his hair and checking the cut of his clothing.

“Oh Wakashi, darling, I didn't know you were coming along today. I didn't have time off scheduled for you for another few weeks.”

The man seemed quite unfazed by the attention and the physical contact. He pushed Oshitari off him in one deft movement and moved to set down his bags alongside Jackal. “Atobe sent me to help. Kabaji can handle security for a day without me.”

He introduced himself to Yagyuu with a handshake and a rather quick look over his wheelchair. His name was Wakashi Hiyoshi and as he learned, more from what others said than his own words, he was a member of Atobe's security team.

There was a long wait after Hiyoshi arrived, during which he joined Jackal in going over their weapons and regularly walking off to the hallway to take calls. Conversations faltered between them and Yagyuu could feel the growing tension as the day slowly trickled away. There were still two people left to arrive, Oshitari said and Yagyuu didn't miss the way he glanced at the rather dated analog clock up on the wall regularly, or the way the crease between his eyebrows deepened as the day went on.

But finally there was a knock on the door and Oshitari got up from his seat, excusing himself even as the conversation died abruptly. Yagyuu heard a fuss at the front door and the very distinctive sound of Akaya's voice before he came into the living room.

“Ah!” Akaya was pointing at Hiyoshi who had turned around to look at him. “You asshole Wakashi! You missed the group chat last week and haven't answered my calls!”

“I've been busy with work.”

“I don't care. I was stuck with Kaoru and Hikaru for an _hour_. What are you doing here anyway?”

Yanagi appeared behind him and his hand descended on Akaya's shoulder, pulling him back. “Akaya, you can discuss these things with Wakashi later. We've got more important things to talk about now.”

Akaya quietened but he was still looking annoyed, even as Yanagi looked around at their group. “Is this everyone?”

Oshitari nodded. “Hikaru and Gakuto will be providing remote assistance as well. I'll contact them both now.”

“Please do. We're moving off in a few hours.” Yanagi moved forward towards the coffee table and put his handheld communicator down on it. “I obtained the floor plans of the research lab for everyone to study in the meantime.” He pressed a few things on the screen before making a broad hand gesture and making the projected screen spread out over the table top. The plans appeared and Yanagi looked up as Yagyuu wheeled over.

“Are these plans accurate, Hiroshi?”

Yagyuu looked at them and frowned. “They look fine. But I'm not too sure about this area,” he pointed out one of the back areas of the building. “But it's been many years since I went near there.”

“Good. If you could please walk us through the layout as best as possible.”

It had been many years since he had been taken through a tour of the laboratory building besides the walk to the main research area. And somehow Yagyuu doubted Niou would be there. But he had vague memories of back rooms and observation decks, fragmented and shadowed no matter how good his memory was. He closed his eyes briefly to orientate himself before he started to talk, leaning forward slightly in his chair to point out areas.

He told them what he knew of the layout of the labs, the security measures, the doors and what was needed to open each one. Yagyuu had been to the labs a precious few times in his childhood, when most of the large tours had taken place and everything he spoke of security wise had probably long changed, but he told them anyway.

“We should also assume that given the recent incident with Masaharu, they'll be on a higher security alert than usual,” Jackal said finally.

Hiyoshi was frowning over the plans and pointed at a small part of it to the side. “Their water supply lines are right here.”

There was a long pause and Yagyuu tried to figure out the importance of the water supply lines. Yanagi however shook his head disapprovingly. “We're not poisoning their water supply, Hiyoshi.”

Yagyuu looked at him in alarm and then to the younger man who just shrugged.

They talked through the afternoon, mostly Yanagi and Jackal with Yagyuu's occasional input. Time seemed to be simultaneously skipping through the day, and crawling. Despite how much discussion was going into the plans, Yagyuu had an ominous feeling that it was all for nought as no matter how well Yanagi said he was able to predict movements and Jackal was confident in his own abilities... things could not work out exactly as they planned, surely. 

As the sky started to darken, Yagyuu got more worried and it was a relief when Oshitari put an end to the discussion.

It was strange, the feeling that planning was for nought while simultaneously feeling like they hadn't planned enough. Had it really only been a few hours? Any lingering tiredness seemed to have vanished at some point without him even noticing. The rest of the group – when had he started thinking of himself as one of them? - seemed confident enough and Jackal told him that they'd succeeded in things far less planned than this one and that the hours of planning they'd had were a luxury. He had a feeling it was meant to be reassuring, but it wasn't.

He could almost let himself believe in their confidence though, with how easily they got to Alpha 3, something he'd thought would be the hardest part. But the bridges had been eerily empty and while he'd pointed out the security cameras through them, Oshitari seemed most unbothered.

It seemed almost routine the way that Jackal melted through the locking mechanism on the gate, tightening the hooks and setting up the device with ease of practice. Akaya bounced impatiently and Yagyuu looked around them as they finally made their way past the gate. It was dark, save for the lights coming from the research lab that never went out.

“Alright. Hiyoshi, Akaya, the two of you will sweep through the west side of the building for security.” Oshitari paused and gave them both a very significant look. “Don't kill anyone you two. We're not here for that today.”

He passed them over ear buds which they reluctantly inserted and Akaya pulled a face. “Hikaru has agreed to assist the two of you. Listen to him, don't argue.”

“Will they be alright together?” Yagyuu asked, watching the two of them run off in one direction. While the move had been agreed upon by Oshitari, Yanagi and Jackal, somehow Yagyuu doubted their effectiveness from the endless bickering on the way over to the lab.

“They'll be fine. They've known each other for a long time.” Oshitari laughed, which wasn't as comforting as he probably thought it was. “Jackal and Renji, move ahead of us into the central control area and disable the security and release the doors.”

“We know,” Yanagi said, but he made to move off anyway, pausing as Jackal turned back to face them.

Jackal pulled a gun out from his belt and pressed it into Yagyuu's hands. “I hope you don't need it, but just in case,” he said. “Do you know how to use one?”

Yagyuu gripped it tightly. It felt strange and heavy in his hand, but he nodded. “I know the theory.”

That made Jackal smile wryly and he reached out to shake Yagyuu's hand and wish him good luck before he and Yanagi set off.

Which left him and Oshitari, to enter the building last and Yagyuu led the way towards the labs. Yanagi had agreed that he should start his search there.

There was the sound of a distant explosion and without needing to say anything, the two of them started moving faster. The hallway was dark, but he could see the lights filtering through doorways that they passed, lighting the gloom enough for them to see easily. The heavy security doors lay open, almost like they were waiting for them, the sound of Oshitari's footsteps loud on the floors as they made their way into the main research lab, his whispered conversation with Gakuto just as much so.

He turned, almost automatically in the direction that he had gone to look at his artificial legs when Oshitari's hand landed on his shoulder. “Hiroshi, you go ahead to find Masaharu. I have a private job I need to do here first.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your father's research is clearly much further than we, or indeed the council had thought. I need to collect their data.”

He wanted to protest. He should had protested, that Oshitari seemed to be more interested in using this as an excuse to finally get his hands on confidential research data when they should have been looking for Niou. But the longer he disagreed, the longer they took. He gave Oshitari a disgusted look and then moved further into the room. It was darker in the lab, the lights off and only the glow of the machines lighting the way. The silence was oppressive with only the quiet glide of his wheels on the smooth floor to break it.

Yagyuu passed the sight of his regrowing legs and he turned his head away to continue, freezing as he heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

“Is that you, Hiroshi? What game are you playing here?”

Yagyuu closed his eyes for just a moment and he gripped the handle of the gun on his lab before he turned his wheelchair around to face his father, who stopped as he saw him, a few paces away.

“Father.”

“Why have you brought people here? To attack our lab?”

“Where is Masaharu?”

Of all the reactions he had expected, laughter was not one of them. And to sound genuinely amused about it. Yagyuu's hand tightened and he repeated his question.

“I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that you're so attached to him. It must feel like part of you has been taken away. You had the same reaction years ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“We weren't able to create humans from nothing, you know that. There were limits even for us. We needed some base material to work from. Experiment 20's foundational genetic material came from you.”

It was a trap, the logical part of his mind said. To distract him from his search for Niou, to waste time, to do _something_ , but he found himself drawn into the conversation nonetheless. “Mother must have known. She would have argued against it.”

“Your mother volunteered you.”

“You're lying.”

But even as he said that, he could remember standing in the observation deck on the second floor that looked down into the research rooms further back in the building. He could remember seeing his father waving at him from where he stood with his mother. And seeing... seeing what else in that room?

His father spread his hands out and in the gloom of the room, his expression looked almost sinister. “You're a smart boy, Hiroshi. Even when you were born, you were intelligent. But it wasn't enough.

I created niou or 'Masaharu', if you want to call him that, from your genetic material. His mind is yours as well. We analysed your brain patterns and the very beginnings of his physical self grew in there, learning. You remember when we shaved your head, twice?”

Yes, he remembered those two times, years apart from one another. He'd been horrified the first time and plagued by headaches until his father had insisted on performing a second surgery that had fixed everything. Yagyuu pressed a shaking hand against his eyes and made himself breathe.

“ _Why_? For what end did you do this? To make me smarter at mother's request, you said? Why not modify my genes in utero if you were so desperate for an intelligent son?”

For a moment perhaps, Yagyuu's father looked almost guilty. “We wanted a natural child at the time. We changed our minds, but we didn't want to risk your safety. So I created _niou_ to do the initial tests on and then carried the successful ones out on you.”

Yagyuu's free hand clenched into a fist. “I... I can't believe this. This is absurd.”

It was absurd that he was here discussing... _ludicrous_ fantasies with his father when he should have left long before. It was absurd that even now his father was as confident and patronising as ever. He had made no move from where he stood, watching his son, the same calm expression on his face that Yagyuu knew all too well and mirrored on his own face all too often.

Once perhaps, it would have been comforting in its normalcy. Now it made his stomach churn and him feel nauseous.

Why was his father even telling him these things to begin with? To make him understand? To try and make him understand why he should just return home and leave Masaharu here, perhaps? Yagyuu didn't know.

“You saw him for yourself, once. In this very room. I'm not surprised that you grew attached to him.” Yagyuu's father's voice was just a little gentler and Yagyuu breathed out slowly.

“What are you planning for him now?” Yagyuu's voice was a whisper and he found he almost didn't want to hear the answer.

“More research, more experiments.” Akihito looked at him and he seemed to know what Yagyuu was thinking. “He's an experiment, Hiroshi. He's not human no matter how much he looks like one.”

“You're wrong.” Yagyuu finally lifted up the gun and pointed it at his father. His heart was pounding in his chest but his hand was steady. He got a rush of vindictive pleasure at seeing the surprised look on his father's face.

“A gun, Hiroshi? Are you going to shoot me?”

“To save him from you, yes. Now tell me: where is Masaharu?”

“He's an experiment. He's not real.”

“And so what am I? A _result_?”

His father blinked in surprise. “You're my son.”

“A son that you've used in your experiments just as much as you have Masaharu.” Yagyuu smiled sadly and he saw the moment of realisation on Akihito's face. “I don't think I want to hold the title of your son any more.”

It was almost as if he was an onlooker, seeing himself squeeze the trigger, once, twice, continually until the magazine was spent. Most shots missed, smashing through glass cases and into machinery. But some hit, and he saw his father's shocked expression, his body as it fell to the ground and then he was suddenly aware of the shaking of his hands and the shallowness of his breathing.

He didn't know how long he sat there, staring as a trickle of blood slowly made its way towards him, trying not to follow the dark line back to the source, knowing... dreading looking at what was there. He couldn't hear anything and he wondered, vaguely, what had happened to the rest of the group.

He wanted to be sick. He wanted to weep and panic but Yagyuu forced himself to be calm and take slow, deep breaths. 

Yagyuu was suddenly jerked back into reality when Oshitari suddenly appeared, clapping a heavy hand on his shoulder and turning his chair around, away from the sight. “Let's go find Masaharu.”

There was no questions on what had happened. No questions on who the person was, what they had spoken about, why Yagyuu had killed him. And for that, Yagyuu was profoundly grateful to Oshitari.


	10. Dancer

How much time had passed since they’d entered the research lab?

There was no sense of time in the lab they had been in or the back corridors that they now walked through; no windows that looked to the outside, just the darkness and the sterile glow of the machines and the lights on the walls.

How much time continued to pass as Oshitari silently pushed Yagyuu’s wheelchair along, the sound of Yagyuu’s breathing as he made himself try to calm down, loud in the oppressive, heavy silence that was broken only by Oshitari’s footsteps that were almost comedic in their clinicalness. They couldn’t hear anything that was happening elsewhere in the building - was there anything else happening? Was there still explosions and the sounds of gunfire? - and they walked slowly, almost unconcernedly away from a scene that Yagyuu tried not to think about.

Though every time he blinked, just for that moment of his eyes being closed, he could see the image of his father’s body, could imagine what it looked like even though he had made himself look away. He could still feel the weight of the gun on his lap and the slight tremble to his hands even as he clenched his fingers together.

“Does it get any easier?” he asked Oshitari suddenly. He didn’t expect an answer, even as he twisted around to look at him.

There was no break in Oshitari’s stride, but he saw the convulsive tightening of Oshitari’s hands on the back of his wheelchair, the slight shift in his expression, the tightening of his mouth and the momentary look of regret that passed so quickly that Yagyuu could almost believe he’d imagined it.

“Killing people? Yes. Killing the person that helped create you? No.”

Yagyuu frowned a little. “You’re modified.” ‘As well’, Yagyuu wanted to add. It was a statement, not a question that was met with a look just as frank and direct as his own. 

Oshitari looked at him consideringly for a long moment before he finally nodded. “Masaharu realised it without me saying anything. The two of you are very similar, you know.”

He had no response to that and they lapsed into silence again. There was another doorway, another short conversation of Oshitari talking to someone via his earpiece before he unlocked it, pushing the door open. They fell into darkness as the door shut behind them, until a light was passed to him by Oshitari to shine ahead of them.

“Gakuto has just located Masaharu,” Oshitari said. “We’re not far now.”

They moved quicker now, the security locks on the doors just opening at the simplest of touches even as Yagyuu started as the keypads, the fingerprint scanners, even just basic locks next to them that seemed to all have been overridden by some terrifying remote force that Yagyuu knew as Gakuto Mukahi.

It was only the last door that Oshitari had to take extra time unlocking, keying in a series of numbers, frowning slightly as they were read out to him over his earpiece. And as the door opened, Yagyuu flinched at the bright glare of the light in the room, blinking to adjust his eyesight even as he heard the whir of the machines and Oshitari moving back behind him again to push him forward.

Yagyuu looked up and saw the stretch of machines, the the large tank and the sole person inside.

He wheeled closer, ignoring Oshitari behind him and looked up at the still form of Niou. He was floating, suspended in a liquid, looking for all the world like he was asleep. There was some sort of device fitted over his nose and mouth and Yagyuu could see the movement of his chest as he breathed.

Was he dreaming, Yagyuu wondered absently.

It was too easy to think, to see the similarities between Niou in front of him and how he had stared at the sight of his regrowing legs in the lab what was just a short while ago.

Yagyuu pushed down the sudden rush of anger that swelled in his chest, making himself turn away.

“The override passwords are different to the others,” Oshitari said, already at the computer. “Any ideas, Gakuto darling?”

He listened to them talk and he moved to look around the lab. There was maybe... vague memories of this place, or perhaps he was simply making himself create memories of it as he looked. That perhaps one day he had visited and seen Niou for himself, something that he’d long forgotten. 

He didn’t know.

Yagyuu waited, each second dragging out until he heard Oshitari’s soft exclamation of victory. And like that, the liquid from the tank drained out, the glass walls lifting up and Oshitari was suddenly there, lifting Niou up even as Yagyuu wheeled quickly over to join them.

“He seems fine,” Oshitari said, checking him over quickly and removing the breathing apparatus. “Your charming prince arrived, Masaharu,” he said, glancing up to smile at Yagyuu. “Does he need to give you a kiss, or are you going to wake up on your own?”

Even as he said that, Yagyuu could see Niou starting to stir and he swore he heard Oshitari mutter something like “what a shame”, but he paid it no mind.

There were no words passed between them as Niou looked at him. And even as Yagyuu passed the gun over to Oshitari to then pull Niou onto his lap, his body wet and limp, his arms sliding automatically between Yagyuu’s back and his chair to clench his fingers in the back of his jacket, they were still silent.

“I think it’s time for us to leave here.”

\--

Niou found he had few memories of the journey home, even as he lay in bed at night and stared at the dark expanse of the ceiling listening to Yagyuu’s soft breathing next to him and tried to think of what had happened.

He could remember Yagyuu carrying him out of the building and Oshitari walking behind them, pushing Yagyuu’s wheelchair along. There had been the heavy smell of smoke in the air as they’d left, other voices around them as he heard the crackling of fire and looked up to see it lighting up the darkened sky.

There had been explosions set by Jackal as they’d left, he’d found out, that levelled the building. No one had answered Yagyuu when he’d asked later if anyone had been hurt from the explosions, and the question hadn’t come up again.

Niou knew who had been in the group that had been there, but he hadn’t cared at the time for them being around him, and still, to some extent, he didn’t care for them. There’d just been Yagyuu Yagyuu Yagyuu who had come, despite the dark thoughts that had pervaded his sleep in the lab.

How could he have been so foolish to think such a thing? he wondered now, rolling over to look at Yagyuu’s sleeping form. It had only been a day, he’d found out, that had mostly been spent waiting for people to arrive to help. 

Niou hadn’t shared his thoughts on the wait, the time that had passed, how long he’d actually spent suspended in a tank like some sort of creature.

He’d seen later, the news reports of the unexplained chemical fire at the laboratory that had burned it to the ground. It had resulted in the deaths of Yagyuu Akihito and Yagyuu Hiroshi, both whose remains had been found at the scene.

Yagyuu had clenched his teeth together and closed his eyes and Niou had turned off the new report.

They hadn’t talked about it. They still didn’t talk about it.

Niou didn’t mention the later reports that covered the futile investigation into the source of the fire - he suspected Yanagi and most likely Oshitari and his team having a hand in that. He also didn’t mention the public memorial services held for both Yagyuu and his father.

There were the gesticulating speeches from Atobe, from a series of council members... the heartbreaking press conference by Yagyuu’s mother, that placed the blame solely on the same terrorists that had attacked the protected cities on Earth.

He never mentioned any of it, and Yagyuu never mentioned knowing about it either.

But Niou could see the crease between his eyebrows and the tiredness on his face that grew as each day passed hiding away in the dojo. And he knew that Yagyuu was keeping just as close a track on the investigation and the fallout as he was.

He could also recall the hum of the engine fo the ship they’d taken back to the ports, that he could still imagine if he closed his eyes in the silence of the night, with the slight hitch in the humming that told him that it needed to be serviced in the near future.

But even as he thought of that and could recall it so clearly, he couldn’t remember how they’d gotten onto the ship from the lab, and in hindsight, it seemed all the more impossible that they had succeeded in it with no one stopping them.

Only Akaya had come back with them, the others leaving for their own homes. But how, how had their movements to and from and even between the colonies, and the permissions that Atobe had gotten them to arrive there from the ports been so easily covered up? Hadn’t anyone traced it?

Niou decided later that he didn’t want to know, even if he thought that Sanada would have told him if he’d asked. Even Oshitari, who messaged him occasionally to make sure he was alright, would have told him.

Did it matter, anyway?

Only the mess in his room that he’d made when he’d hurriedly packed his bags, the messages from Oshitari and the presence of more of Yagyuu’s possessions really proved that the incident hadn’t been just a crazy dream. It would be so easy to let himself believe that.

With Yagyuu lying next to him, his breathing slow and his glasses neatly folded next to him on the floor, it was hard to believe that he’d ever left in the first place.

Yanagi visited days later, sitting at the dining table with a cup of coffee as Yagyuu and Niou went in to get drinks of their own for the day.

“Having almost complete genetic material from you in your fathers lab was very helpful. But as such, Oshitari and I will provide you with a new identity shortly,” was all he said on the matter.

Yagyuu just nodded and turned away to leave the room, his pot of tea left behind. Niou found him later sitting quietly in Niou’s - in _their_ workroom, staring at the scratched surface of the workbench. He said nothing as Niou put the pot of tea down in front of him and poured him a cup before lopping down into the chair next to him. And Niou found he had nothing to say either.

\--

They fell into an easy routine, and as days turned into weeks and news of the laboratory fire, the responses and eventually the conspiracy theories dried up, it was almost like nothing had ever happened. Sanada had work for them to do, as he always did, and the only sign that things were different, was their unspoken agreement to not talk about certain topics that neither of them wanted to bring up.

But it hung between them. What Yagyuu was going to do, where he was going to go... the contraption to get him up the stairs remained as raw and unpolished as when they’d first installed it, and Niou found himself sitting on the roof at night, turning over possibilities and listening to the sounds of Sanada’s snoring through the open window.

Niou asked Sanada first, approaching him before he went to bed one night at the end of the week. Yagyuu had already gone upstairs for the night and Sanada was looking at their work for the week in his back room.

“You have to redo this one,” he said, passing Niou a box as he walked through the door.

Niou bit back his response, looking at the work... ... as far as he could see it looked fine, but there was probably a line of solder out of place or something. It was fine, it had worked when they’d tested it after fixing, but it wasn’t acceptable still.

Irritating man.

“I wanted to ask you about Hiroshi, by the way,” Niou said and Sanada paused, glancing up at him. Then he grunted and went back to what he was doing. Niou took that as a sign to keep talking.

“I wanted to make him some legs now, since we kind of ruined his actual replacement ones. And...” he hesitated and drummed his fingers against the side of the box. “I was going to ask him to stay here.”

Sanada didn’t say anything for a long time and Niou stood and watched him slowly inspect each of their pieces of work, turning them over almost hypnotically in his hands. He wondered idly if Sanada could distinguish which of them had worked on which part.

“If you can get the materials for them and Yagyuu agrees, that’s fine,” he said finally, looking at Niou directly. “And I just assumed you wanted him to stay.”

“... Oh,” was all Niou really had to say to that.

It was suddenly quite awkward and Niou drummed his fingers some more on the box before he sighed loudly and stomped his foot on the floor, something that made Sanada only twitch slightly.

“Thanks Sanada. Don’t stay up too late, or Seiichi’ll tell you how much your eyebags are growing next time he comes over.”

Niou waved jauntily at Sanada and then he skipped out of the room to head upstairs. He heard Sanada grumble a “pest” as he left and Niou just laughed, banging on the closed door to Akaya’s workroom as he passed.

He didn’t breach the subject with Yagyuu for a while though, waiting days of watching him carefully to try and gauge whether or not Yagyuu would agree to staying, and whether the offer of legs would be accepted.

Yagyuu knew he was watching, that much was obvious, though he did a good job at pretending otherwise, only occasionally giving Niou’s rather intense stares an annoyed one of his own. They were easy enough to ignore, though Niou wasn’t sure how to feel about Yagyuu seeming to have just accepted his eccentricities without question.

Sanada had given them a new project to work on with a half-hearted “get this part done by today,” that morning and Yagyuu was frowning over the instructions as Niou sat at his desk and watched him contemplatively. 

How did one approach a topic like this?

‘So, do you feel like having legs again?’ ‘Have you thought about what you’re going to do now that you’re technically considered dead?’

... Both were terrible ideas.

“Hey Hiroshi, I was thinking of starting to work on designs for your legs, okay?” Niou said and he saw Yagyuu stiffen slightly. “Are you okay to work on Sanada’s thing by yourself?”

There was a long pause in which Yagyuu stared unmovingly at the piece of paper and Niou stopped himself from fidgeting.

“If it pleases you, Masaharu,” Yagyuu said, putting the paper down and pulling parts out of the box. “I don’t want anything too over the top though, so please control yourself.”

Niou laughed and shook his head. “Are you sure you didn’t want to fly like Seiichi can?”

“I’m sure. I just want to walk.”

Niou hummed and spun around on his chair in a way that made it squeak and Yagyuu’s eye to twitch slightly in response. “I’m going to have to ask Seiichi for the materials...” he said out loud to himself and he tapped his fingers on the table. “And I’ll have to get Renji and his friend to come and help with the installation...”

There was another silence between them and Niou purposely ruffled around in his desk for some paper, and began looking for wherever he’d stashed those old designs from when Yagyuu had first arrived. He paused, still bent over at the waist and spoke again.

“Does this mean you’re planning on staying here, by the way?” He tried to sound casual about it, but he couldn’t help the little strain of anxiety in his voice, or how his hands stilled as he waited for Yagyuu’s response. “Since you’re agreeing to all this.”

“You’re a bit late in asking. I thought you weren’t going to ask at all and had just assumed that I was going to,” Yagyuu said and Niou straightened up as Yagyuu laughed softly.

“Sanada asked me as soon as we got back from the Colonies, Masaharu. I said yes.”

\--

It had been just over ten years ago that the colony prisons were relocated from Kappa Three to a modified asteroid pushed into orbit around the Earth, between the moon and the Colonies. They were better facilitated and catered for a growing prison population, the council had said when they’d announced the plan. 

There had been murmurs at the beginning that the new prison was also noticeably further from public and media scrutiny, but those murmurs had quietened to nothing over the years as the old prison was pulled down and it became normal for prisoners to be transported away from the colonies.

The prison was hollowed out of the asteroid itself, facilitated by an artifical atmosphere and gravity. But deeper into the prison, the manufactured air grew stale, with an underlying metallic smell that some thought pervaded from a heavy metal framework supporting the asteroid and others just associated with the cheaper air circulation system used.

It was there that the lights were always on, bright and harsh to compensate for the lack of sunlight, the corridors brightly lit and silent, the heavy doors shutting out the sounds of the prisoners inside their rooms.

The prison guard walked down one such corridor, the only sound his footsteps on the rock that echoed abnormally loudly and the sound of his trolley. It felt strange coming down here by himself, have spent weeks beforehand when he was new to the job with the older guard who had been rotated away to a new position.

It was a simple job, but nonetheless one that required years of faithful service, an impeccable record and an intense screening process.

Push the trolley through the maze of corridors, open the small window to the cell, call out the number of the prisoner, tell them to stand against the wall and wait for the door to open remotely before entering to hand out the meal. And then signal for the door to be closed. Monotonous, repetitive, simple.

They said that these were the high security prisoners, that were monitored every moment of the day by remote camera, everything controlled by people in an office. Just in case.

But nothing ever went wrong, as far as he knew. There were never any words exchanged, just looks that ranged from surly to empty, to filled with hatred and to insane, as he crossed the small rooms to place their trays of food down and then left. They all remained as they were told though, until he heard the heavy door shut behind him for each cell and he moved onto the next one.

“Prisoner 53925, stand against the wall,” he said, pulling the next tray off the trolley.

There as the faint sound of movement within the room and when there was silence, the lock was opened and the door opened automatically.

Prisoner 53925 was as silent as the others as he stood against the wall and watched as the guard walked the few steps to the table in the corner to put down the tray. But at the same time, he was different to the other prisoners here, in the way that he held himself and the straight gaze that he watched the guard with.

Perhaps his hair was too long, but everything else was clean and tidy.

He paused as the prisoner continued to consider him and he took a moment longer than normal to lay everything out on the table. He’d never been in this particular cell before, near the end of the route and past when the old guard had normally taken over to speed up the end of the shift.

“You’re new here,” the prisoner said and he nodded, surprised. “I’ve told the guards previously that it’s demeaning to refer to us by numbers. We have names still, we didn’t give them up with our freedom. I hope you’ll respect that.”

The man’s voice was quiet, hoarse from years of disuse; a man who spoke few words at all and hadn’t done for a long time.

“What would you prefer to be called, then?”

“My name is Tezuka, you can call me that.”

FIN


End file.
